electric vehicles, batteries, charging infrastructure, electric cars, Automotive trends, Auto industry trends, Automotive market research, Automotive market analysis, auto industry news

Let's talk about the future, specifically: electric vehicles; charging infrastructure; and electrification services (like vehicle-to-grid). Over 100 years in the making, it looks like electric vehicles might be about to have their time in the spotlight. How much will they cost? Who will make the best ones? Is this the end for fossil fuels? All great questions... read all the latest updates below.

Automotive trends, Auto industry trends, Automotive market research, Automotive market analysis, auto industry news

2020

April

  • APB Corporation licenced Nissan’s battery technology for use in stationary storage applications. (Autocar)
  • Flexible solar panel maker Armor has come up with a way of integrating lots of solar cells without having to worry too much about the effect on the vehicle’s styling. Instead of being permanently installed, they are part of a retractable cover that emerges from the rear bumper when the car is parked. (Armor)
  • Battery developer ProLogium raised $100 million. (Deal Street Asia)
  • Battery technology developer Addionics raised $6 million. (TechCrunch)
  • Daimler believes that in eight to ten years recycled batteries will become a significant source of raw materials and says that solid state batteries won’t be any good for passenger cars, even by the late 2020s, although it does see the technology as suitable for commercial vehicles. (Daimler)

March

  • BYD says its new “blade” design of battery cell can improve pack space utilization (but not necessarily density) by 50% over conventional designs and is better in crashes. (BYD)
  • Researchers looking into the CO2 emissions of different powertrain types say that electric cars have lower emissions than conventionally powered cars in all but the most coal-dependent nations. (BBC)
  • Battery management software firm Twaice raised €11 million. (TechCrunch)
  • Bollinger has designed its flexible all-electric rolling chassis for battery sizes up to 180 kWh. (Bollinger)
  • VW’s maths says that by 2030 its cars will have the potential to store more electricity than all the World’s hydroelectric power stations. (Reuters)
  • GM presented plans for electric vehicles to investors and press. GM’s forthcoming ultium battery design will see some vehicles sporting pack sizes of 200 kWh and will be in production from late 2020 onwards. The first new product will be the next generation Chevrolet Bolt, followed by a Bolt EUV, then a new Cadillac called the Lyriq (exact timing is still unclear) and the already confirmed Hummer. GM believes that customer adoption may be faster than most forecasters are expecting. GM thinks that the new design of cells it is adopting will make them easier to fit into different shapes and sizes of vehicle; to swap out worn out units and; to be technology agnostic - both with regards to suppliers and in introducing new chemistries as they arrive. (GM)

February

  • Magna says that next generation electric drives, transmissions and ancillaries could boost electric vehicle range by up to 120km over today’s models. (Magna)
  • US charging start-up Electriphi raised $3.5 million. (TechCrunch)
  • Tesla is rumoured to be switching to CATL’s prismatic batteries for entry level Chinese-built Model 3s. (Reuters)
  • Toyota is developing batteries for hybrids in collaboration with Toyota Industries. (Toyota)
  • Indian moped rental firm Fae Bikes started a charging network. (Charzer)
  • Electricity firm EDF acquired a majority stake in charging provider Pod Point. (EDF)
  • Renault says that about 80% of charging by French customers is at home or at the office, with the remainder being on public facilities. The company admitted to being surprised by the high interest from rural customers, with 50% of cars going to owners outside cities. (Seeking Alpha)
  • German utility ON is installing chargers developed in partnership with VW that use batteries to enable discharging at higher rates than the local grid can support. (VW)
  • Hyundai and Kia will use a modified version of Canoo’s electric rolling chassis for a series of small electric cars and autonomous pods. (Kia)
  • Westfield reckons that, for niche car makers, all-electric variants cost around £20,000 - £25,000 more than conventionally powered models. (Telegraph)
  • BYD’s president says that Chinese electric cars need to become more competitive with Western models, citing a need to improve in safety and reliability. (Yahoo)
  • A survey by Deloitte reckons one in ten UK customers want their next car to be electric. (Motor Trader)
  • Battery developer Forever New Energy raised $20 million. (Deal Street Asia)
  • Lucid says the production model of the Air will have a 900V system. (Electrek)

January

  • Indian tariffs for electric vehicles have been hiked -- at the same time as those for conventional engines -- to 40%. The previous (favourable to EV) difference in tariff between electric and conventional powertrain has been eliminated. The government says it simply wants more local manufacturing. (Economic Times of India) It also believes that within three years, EVs will be cheaper than those with combustion engines. (Economic Times of India)
  • India is plotting a 12-lane, 1,300km electrified highway, to be completed by the start of 2024. It would have fixed overhead lines for trucks and buses and charging service stations for light vehicles. (Economic Times of India)
  • Tesla’s Elon Musk thinks that battery modules are just a holdover from a time when lower cell manufacturing and management performance required a capability to swap out failed cells without chucking away the entire pack. He now wants to dispense with Tesla’s module engineering team entirely. (Clean Technica)
  • Aston Martin confirmed it won’t release any electric cars until 2025 at the earliest, calling into question plans for the Lagonda brand (which was to be all-electric) (AML)
  • GM’s president doesn’t think there is an inflection point for EV adoption believing that they have already entered the mainstream and that the rate of take-up is now in the hands of customers. In echoing previous statements that the next generation of all-electric cars would be profitable, scale was highlighted as a major factor in the business case. He also said that battery packs didn’t need to increase in size from the current generation, but GM will be able to squeeze out more performance thanks to a better understanding of how the battery is used in the real world. (Electrek)
  • The battery-making joint venture between Toyota and Panasonic will be called Prime Planet. (Toyota)
  • Battery developer Oxis Energy claims it is “close to” an energy density of 500 Wh / kg (today’s best is around half that or less) from a solid-state lithium-sulphur chemistry. (Oxis)
  • Total will install 20,000 charging points in the Netherlands. (Total)
  • The cost of Hydrogen could fall by 50%, if only $70 billion is invested in it. (Hydrogen Council)
  • Hyundai says modern vehicle batteries will last 1,000 cycles if they are fully discharged and recharged every time and, taking Hyundai’s view of a more realistic use case, if 20% of the capacity is used and topped up each day then they will be good for 22 years. (Hyundai)
  • Electric motor developer Software Motor Company raised $25 million from investors including BMW. (SMC)
  • GKN is teaming up with Delta Electronics to offer integrated electric motors that also house the transmission and some power electronics). (GKN)
  • The UK city of Nottingham is trialling taxi ranks with wireless charging. (Telegraph)
  • Lightyear hopes to bring a second, more affordable, solar powered car to market by 2023 and sees demand of more than 100,000 units per year for the model. (Inside EVs)
  • VW says a sales mix of 40% electric cars (which includes plug-in hybrids) is required to meet the 2030 EU targets for fleet average CO2. The company expects subsidies for electric cars to be phased out (the specific discussion was around Germany) and has written off hydrogen as a realistic fuel source until after 2030. (Handelsblatt)
  • VW is in talks with Chinese battery manufacturer Guoxuan about a strategic cooperation (something that was rumoured in August). (Handelsblatt)
  • FCA and Foxconn / Hon Hai are considering developing and manufacturing all-electric vehicles in China. (FCA)
  • Apparently, the version of the VW ID3 with the biggest battery (77 kWh) will only be a four seater. (Inside EVs)
  • Rumours resurfaced that GM is planning to relaunch Hummer as an all-electric brand. (The Guardian)
  • South Korean charging network Daeyoung Chaevi received a “large” investment from Kakao. (ET News)
  • Californian authorities said charging networks could no longer charge by the minute. They will still be able to charge extra fees if people remain parked in the space once the vehicle has been charged. (Electrek)
  • Nemanska Lithium filed for bankruptcy protection after price falls left the business case for its new Quebecois mine in tatters. (FT)
  • Battery developer ProLogium keeps saying in its marketing materials that conventional lithium ion batteries are unstable and at high risk of fires. No statistics accompany the claims. (ProLogium)
  • Byton received investment from Marubeni. The Japanese trading house apparently hopes the deal will secure a supply of Byton’s used batteries that can be put into service as stationary storage. (Nikkei)
  • VW showed a concept video for a mobile charging station based in a car park. The system is made up of two elements, a battery pack on wheels that is put next to the car to charge the car’s battery and a robot tug that tows it from the charging station to the car and back again. The use of an animated video and dimensions of the battery pack suggest this is not something VW have yet mastered. (VW)
  • Hyundai’s tests have shown that the charging rate from a solar roof is fairly reliable, with only (3)% - (10)% performance degradation if the panel is dirty or has debris on it and that the CO2 benefit is approximately 9g / mile (based on tests recognised be the US regulator). (Hyundai)
  • BMW thinks it has chosen the right path by developing platforms that can accommodate conventional and electric powertrains but admits that dedicated architectures would be better if all-electric vehicles dominate. Improvements in battery energy density have wildly exceeded BMW’s expectations and the next generation of plug-in hybrids from the company will have zero emission ranges of 80 - 120 km. The firm believes that, in Europe, a decent charging network “is coming” and that this will support a plug-in hybrid sales mix of 25% by 2030. Although a current fuel cell costs ten times that of a battery electric system, BMW expects costs to converge by 2025. (Automotive News)

2019

December

  • US firm LS Power is buying charging network EVGo. (LS Power)
  • IBM is developing a new battery that dispenses with heavy metals. (ZDNet)
  • Xpeng and Nio will share their charging infrastructure, and customer information, although it seems that for now they will operate independent branding. (Bloomberg)
  • Continental’s Vitesco powertrain unit unveiled a low-cost series hybrid powertrain that uses electric drive to reduce the complexity of the transmission and reliance on the internal combustion engine. The system saves money through the simpler transmission, and the use of a cheaper port fuel injection engine. (Vitesco)
  • BMW signed a five year contract to buy €540 million of lithium from Ganfeng. BMW says it now has enough raw materials for all the batteries it will use. (BMW)
  • ABT and Schaeffler formed a joint venture to modify VW-brand vehicles to become all-electric. (Schaeffler)
  • Ahamani Group and Renon formed a JV to guild a 200 MWh battery pack factory in India. (Autocar)
  • Toyota’s North American sales team say they could shift double the amount of RAV4 plug-in hybrids, but that scare battery supplies are holding them back. (Bloomberg)
  • Hyundai announced a new set of product objectives called Strategy 2025. The headline was a beefed-up target for electric vehicles -- by 2025 the aim is now to sell 670,000 FCEVs and BEVs annually (previously it was over 560,000 BEVs and an unspecified number of FCEVs) and be in the top three EV manufacturers globally (given Tesla’s current volumes, and VW’s aspirations, Hyundai would have to be next best). By 2035, Hyundai believes, electric vehicles will be mainstream in emerging markets. (Hyundai)

November

  • FCA has reportedly asked distressed electric car start-ups (amongst them Faraday Future and Seres / SF Motors) to build demonstration versions of their electric powertrains integrated into FCA models. (The Verge)
  • Faurecia confidently predicts that by 2030 fuel cells will have comparable total cost of ownership to all-electric powertrains in commercial vehicles (p63). This analysis forecasts a drop of more than two thirds in the price and operating cost of fuel cells, the justification for this extreme decline wasn’t made public. By 2030 Faurecia thinks for commercial vehicles, fuel cell market share might be almost as high as all-electric share. (Faurecia)
  • Tesla has apparently begun deploying mobile charging stations powered by a whopping 3 MWh battery. (Electrek)
  • Nikola Motors reckons it has a battery with a 500 Wh / kg energy density that is nearly production ready. (Nikola)
  • The head of PSA’s Vauxhall brand expects the next generation of B cars (e.g. 2025+) will only be offered as all-electric models in Europe. (Autocar)
  • Electric GT are selling an electric motor complete with batteries that fits into the same space as a V8. (IEE Spectrum)
  • Lyft says that drivers of all electric ride sharing cars / taxis save $70 - $100 per week in fuel costs. (Lyft)
  • Workhorse will offer EnerDel battery packs in a range of sizes. (Workhorse)
  • BMW expects energy density to double by 2030, implying ~ 300 Wh / kg and is spending €200 million on research into new technology to achieve it. BMW believes that in future, 90% of the battery will be recyclable. (BMW)
  • Mahle says that by optimising the chemistry to reflect the drive cycles of cars fitted with 48V batteries, the fuel economy can be improved by up to 15% compared with today’s offerings. (Mahle)
  • The head of the DTM touring car championship wants to start a new category for battery electric and fuel cell powered racing cars where the pitstops are performed by robots. (Reuters)
  • Sila Nanotechnologies raised a further $45 million, bringing total funding to $340 million. (Sila)
  • Renault thinks that used batteries from electric cars could have an application in boats. (Renault)

October

  • EDF is acquiring UK charging network Pivot Power. (Reuters)
  • ABB is taking over Chinese charging provider Chargedot. (Autocar)
  • Hyundai invested in three companies focused on hydrogen fuel cell technologies: Impact Coatings; H2Pro and GRZ Technologies. (Hyundai)
  • Virtual charging network EV Connect raised $12 million. (EV Connect)
  • LG Chem executives expect battery costs of $100 / kWh in 2025, by which time the firm believes all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles will account for 15% of total industry sales. (Reuters)
  • Electric platform developer Motiv raised $60 million from investors including recreational vehicle builder Winnebago. (Motiv)
  • Ford’s forthcoming electric vehicles will only be capable of charging at up to 150 kW, despite Ford being a founder member of the Ionity network that can facilitate 350 kW. (Ford)
  • Hanergy Glory says that a car with solar panels fit for 20km of range will virtually never need to be charged (1.6 KWh by their maths). It has developed such a vehicle and hopes to raise $25 million to bring it into production. It says that it already has a contract to supply 140,000 units to a delivery company. (Hanergy Glory)
  • Executives say VW is already in discussions with other car firms about licencing the premium electric vehicle platform being developed by Audi and Porsche. (Bloomberg)

September

  • Hyundai will collaborate with Cummins to develop hydrogen fuel cells. (Hyundai)
  • Daimler trucks will use batteries supplied by CATL. (CATL)
  • Audi says the electric car has the best lifetime carbon footprint of all drive systems (in developed markets). (Audi)
  • Symbio, the Faurecia / Michelin joint venture that produces fuel cells says it will make 20,000 vehicle sets in 2025 and 200,000 in 2030. (Symbio)
  • Pininfarina, Benteler and Bosch announced a jointly-developed electric vehicle platform that they hope other OEMs will licence. (Pininfarina)
  • Volta, operators of ad-supported car charging, raised $35 million. (TechCrunch)
  • BASF, Suez and Eramet are conducting a two-year research project, with €5 million of public funding, to develop new methods for recycling lithium ion batteries. (Suez)
  • BMW thinks 2025 is the earliest that fuel cells will be commercially viable for volume production. (BMW)
  • Bosch will source battery cells for 48V applications from CATL. (CATL)
  • CATL took an 8.5% stake in lithium mine operator PilbaraMinerals. (Deal Street Asia)
  • Germany has reportedly agreed in principle to create a European EV battery consortium. (Reuters)
  • Delta Motorsports showed off an electric vehicle platform it has developed. Unusually, the company has avoided the flat-topped skateboard philosophy of most non-unibody electric vehicles. (Inside EVs)
  • StreetScooter and Chery created a joint venture to build and sell electric vans in China. (Xinhua)
  • Consumer surveys commissioned by Ford showed that many Americans think electric cars will be boring and have low range, admitting that this was in part because of underwhelming first efforts by Ford and its peers. (Ford)
  • VW expects electric cars to have maintenance costs 20% - 30% lower than conventionally powered vehicles. (VW)
  • Hyundai and Kia are buying into the Ionity European fast charging consortium, taking an equal share to the existing OEM owners. The announcement suggested the new money is going towards reducing the investment from the other partners, rather than increasing the network. (Kia)
  • Evergrande will use Benteler’s electric drive system as the basis for its new electric vehicles. (Autocar)
  • Evasive answers from VW’s COO led reporters to the conclusion that VW was paying less than $100 per kWh for batteries used in the ID3. (New York Times)

August

  • Aptera plans to make a three-wheeled, two seat, electric car with a 1,000 mile range. (IEEE Spectrum)
  • Mahle announced a new modular engine, purpose built for hybrid use. The firm says that it can fit into vehicles ranging from B cars (e.g. Fiesta) to J segment (e.g. Range Rover Evoque) and claims CO2 emissions of 18 g / km in an optimised small SUV (under WLTP rules), although Mahle didn’t; say what electrical system this assumed. Mahle have reduced the unit’s cost by using lower technology (e.g. single camshaft, port fuel injection). (Mahle)
  • Volta has enlisted the services of Prodrive to help in developing all-electric trucks. (Prodrive)
  • Electric vehicle start-up Neuron EV announced another concept product, the firm envisages a luxury electric bus, which Neuron appears to want to run itself, for long distance travel. With must-visit charging hubs. (Neuron)
  • SK Innovation plans to sue LG Chem, claiming patent infringement on battery technologies. (Reuters)
  • India’s government is working on the assumption that battery cell costs will fall to $76 per kWh within the next three to four years. (Economic Times of India)
  • Deutsche Post says it had received many expressions of interest in StreetScooter as it explores options for the all-electric vehicle maker. (Reuters)
  • Nio will collaborate with ProLogium to develop solid state batteries. (Inside EVs)
  • Nio plans to let owners swap batteries for free, waving the prior $25 per swap fee. (Green Car Reports)
  • South Korea’s president has bought a fleet of fuel cells car to prove how capable the technology is, but will initially only use them for short distance commutes. (Yonhap)
  • LG Chem says it will try to source fewer components from Japan to preserve stability as a trade dispute between Japan and South Korea threatens to boil over. (Reuters)
  • Ford is planning for all new battery electric vehicles to be profitable The firm’s research says that range is targeted to be 300+ miles. (Autocar)
  • Statkraft agreed terms to acquire German charging network E-WALD. (Reuters)
  • Charging networks EVgo and VW’s Electrify America announced that customers can use both firms facilities without having to create separate accounts. (EVgo)
  • Insurance company Axa said that luxury electric vehicles were being involved in lots of accidents compared to their internal combustion engine powered counterparts, but that the data was preliminary and might not be statistically significant. Surprisingly fast acceleration was mooted as a likely factor. (Reuters)
  • German utility EnBW reportedly plans to order 14,000 electric cars from 2020 onwards. (Handelsblatt)
  • Tesla has reportedly agreed a supply deal with LG for batteries to go into Chinese-made cars and is in serious talks with CATL for a similar contract. (Bloomberg)
  • Ford and Zotye’s Chinese electric car JV is reportedly in doubt. (China Daily)
  • Shado Group hopes to sell 1,000 ultracapacitor powered 3 wheelers each month in India. (Autocar)
  • A quarry operator in Switzerland says they have a dumper truck that never needs recharging. Because it carries a heavy load downhill and returns empty, the regenerative braking apparently harvests more electricity than the uphill drive consumes. (Green Car Reports)
  • Urban Electric, developers of electric charging stations that can be hidden in the ground when not in use, launched a crowdfunding campaign to create a demonstration site. (Industry Europe)
  • Mahle says that a new design of battery pack allows for a 40% reduction in battery size. With the industry currently fixated on kWh as a measurement of performance, it isn’t clear whether any manufacturers will push for the upper end of Mahle’s claims soon. (Mahle)
  • Mushashi Seimitsu invested in KeraCel and the two companies will collaborate to develop 3D printed solid state batteries for motorbikes. (3D Printing Industry)
  • Continental says that electric technology doesn’t make the firm any money at the moment and that solid state batteries won’t be commercially viable until after 2030. (Handelsblatt)
  • Canada’s government says that a $5,000 per vehicle grant increased electric vehicle sales by 40% -- but only from 2% of total sales to 3%. (Green Car Reports)
  • NSK says that by 2030, it is aiming for annual revenues of 4 billion JPY (about $38 million) from bearings for electric vehicle powertrain. (NSK)
  • Daimler is rumoured to be planning a major reveal of the all-electric EVA 2 platform at Frankfurt. (Handelsblatt)
  • Daimler is working with BAIC on creating stationary storage with used batteries from electric cars. (Daimler)
  • EDAG says it has developed a scalable electric vehicle floor (i.e. what others call a skateboard, minus the parts that make it a rolling chassis). That it will offer to OEMs under licence. (Autocar)

July

  • VW’s Electrify America charging network is trialling automated chargers from Stable in preparation for self-driving cars. (VW)
  • India slashed tax rates on electric cars to 5% (from 12%), conventionally powered vehicles remain at 28%. (Reuters)
  • BP and Didi Chuxing have teamed up to create a Chinese network of charging stations. (BP)
  • Transition-One says it can convert cars with internal combustion engines into fully electric operation for €8,500, and it will only take a day. The economics aren’t completely clear since that isn’t much more than carmakers are saying a battery pack and motor costs. (Bloomberg)
  • Sumitomo believes that it can develop tyres that harvest electricity. (Inside EVs)
  • Nidec and GAC are working on a Chinese joint venture that will produce electric motors. (Nidec)
  • VW acquired “nearly a quarter” of charging station management company to.be and will help fund an expansion of the European network. (VW)
  • Ferrari said that initial customer feedback on the SF90 hybrid in electric drive mode was very positive because the lack of noise would be less antisocial in crowded neighbourhoods. The CEO says however than pure electric vehicles are “beyond 2022”. (Seeking Alpha)
  • Evergrande is partnering with the state-owned Chinese power grid in a 50/50 joint venture to create a charging network called Guoheng Smart Energy. (Caixin)
  • A new estimate of electrification infrastructure in China reckons there are over 1 million charging points across the country, about 40% of which are open to the public. (Economic Times of India)
  • ZF says a two-speed gearbox on an all-electric car will improve range by 5% compared with a single speed. (ZF)
  • Toyota is teaming up with BYD to develop battery electric vehicles for the Chinese market. (Toyota)
  • VW CEO Diess sees the MEB platform becoming the “industry standard for electric vehicles”. (Automobil Sport)
  • Chinese battery maker SVOLT is reportedly planning a European factory. (Reuters)
  • REE emerged from stealth mode saying it had developed a highly flexible vehicle platform using in-wheel motors and steer by wire that was already interesting Mitsubishi and FCA amongst others. (REE)
  • LG Chem is reportedly looking to build a second US battery factory. (Reuters)
  • Continental showed off a hybrid vehicle with a 30 kW (40 PS) motor powered by a 48V system. These type of hybrid set-ups promise lower costs than (traditional) high voltage equipment. (Continental)
  • Ola Electric raised $250 million from SoftBank. (Business Standard)
  • Toyota says a new generation of solar panels has increased charging rate by a factor of four. Toyota has a Prius test vehicle that generates around 860 W (in Japanese sunshine), good for a claimed 44.5 km of highway driving (the old system provided just over 6km). (Toyota)
  • VW expects solid state batteries to become cost competitive in the late 2020s and says that most of the production equipment and 60% of the tooling is the same as lithium ion cells, so newly built factories won’t become obsolete even if the technology changes. (Reuters)

June

  • Indian delivery firm Flipkart wants electric vehicles to make up 40% of its fleet by March 2020. (Reuters)
  • Electric car firms in China might need to revisit their cashflow assumptions. Kandi (part owned by Geely) has only just received government subsidies relating to vehicle sales between 2015 and 2017 -- a not insignificant figure of almost $130 million. (Kandi)
  • South Korean battery firms welcomed moves by the Chinese government to stop “recommending” native battery suppliers for electric vehicles over foreign rivals. (ET News)
  • Charger supplier Wallbox raised €15 million in a round led by Spanish power firm Iberdrola. (Iberdrola)
  • The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance VC unit invested in The Mobility House, a company that uses batteries from electric cars to provide storage for power grids. (Renault)
  • BMW believes that solid state batteries will not reach maturity until the 2030s. (Autocar)
  • The German government plans to support three battery making alliance. (Reuters)
  • Charging operator ChargePoint has been acquired by Engie. (Fleet Europe)
  • Ford’s ex-CEO Mark Fields said electric vehicle demand would only grow slowly and lots of carmakers were going to look silly in the next 2 - 3 years for making investments in cars no one wants. (Automotive News)
  • Charging network Fastned filed for an IPO hoping to raise €27 million. (Fastned)
  • VW invested €900 million in battery producer Northvolt for about 20% of the firm and confirmed plans to create a joint venture that will have a 16 GWh factory. (VW)
  • Industry insiders appear concerned at the lack of a transparent pricing mechanism for lithium, a key raw material in most electric vehicle battery designs. (Reuters)
  • NEVS acquired electric hub motor developer Protean. (Protean)
  • India’s government will reportedly demand that ride hailing companies convert at least 40% of their fleets to electric vehicles by 2026. (Reuters)

May

  • Three Indian state-owned companies created a joint venture to secure raw materials for electric vehicle batteries through buying mines that can supply lithium and cobalt. (Economic Times of India)
  • Chakratec launched a high-power charger which uses kinetic recovery (rather than a battery) to boost output from local grid levels. (Chakratec)
  • Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard has established a new battery start-up called Tiveni. (Electrek)
  • Charging provider Ionity (a VW Group / Ford / BMW / Daimler JV) said it had contracts in place to build 95% of the intended 400-station network. (Porsche)
  • Market researchers in the US said that due a glut of new electric vehicles about to appear on sale, the average model can only expect to sell 11,900 units per year. (Reuters)
  • Germany’s government proposed a new raft of measures to improve CO2, including increased incentives for buying electric cars. The plan is to offer €4,000 on cars priced under €30,000 (e.g. the VW ID3), an existing €2,000 manufacturer contribution would presumably remain. (BMVI)
  • VW is rumoured to have concerns that a 20 GWh battery supply deal with Samsung will ultimately only deliver only 25% of the plan because of differences over production volumes and point in time demands. VW said that it still regarded Samsung as a major supplier. (Bloomberg)
  • A study of UK consumers said only one in four would consider buying an all-electric car at present. Customers still seem to be conscious of range, and even if a reliable 300 mile range was on offer 10% of drivers said that they still wouldn’t be interested. (BBC)
  • A VW board member said the company was in the process of detailed planning for a battery factory with Northvolt and might add further European locations. (Reuters)
  • Samsung is reportedly offering a battery cell with an energy density of 500wh/L to top carmakers. (ET News)
  • CATL and LG Chem will supply batteries for all-electric vehicles to Volvo. (Volvo)
  • Incoming Daimler CEO Källenius sees a 8:1:1 ratio of nickel, manganese and cobalt becoming the standard in the next generation, with some suppliers moving to 9:0.5:0.5. (Economic Times of India)
  • China says it has found a way to dramatically reduce the cost of extracting lithium, a key raw material in electric vehicle batteries. (SCMP)
  • Northvolt has signed a battery supply deal with VW Group’s Scania. (Reuters)
  • Farasis Energy is planning a 6 GWh battery factory in Germany. (Sachsen-Anhalt)
  • Bosch says next generation fuel cells will use the same amount of platinum as a diesel catalytic converter. (Reuters)
  • The cost of Honda’s hybrid system will drop 25% between 2018 and 2022. (Honda)

April

  • LG Chem is suing SK Innovation in US courts, accusing its rival of stealing technology. (Reuters)
  • An unnamed Chinese battery maker is in talks to take a stake in nickel producer St George Mining. (Reuters)
  • JLR CEO Ralph Speth is conscious of supply constraints on batteries for electric cars and believes the cost will rise over the next two to three years. (Automotive News)
  • Bosch will make fuel cells using technology licensed from Powercell Sweden. (Autocar)
  • Panasonic says it wouldn’t be a big deal to convert a Japanese factory from making 18650 format cells (as used in Tesla Model S and X) to producing 2170 cells instead (as used in Model 3). (Reuters)
  • Ford invested $500 million in Rivian and announced that a new all-electric vehicle will be developed using Rivian’s all-electric rolling chassis / skateboard (but it won’t be the all-electric version of the F-150 pick-up). Ford’s de facto COO will join Rivian’s board. (Ford)
  • VW has been running the numbers for cradle-to-grave CO2 emissions to compare fossil fuel powered vehicles with battery electric versions. The conclusion is that electric cars are already responsible for fewer emissions but have a far worse footprint in the production stage. VW says there are steps which will dramatically improve this. (VW)
  • Battery developer Sila Nanotechnologies raised $170 million from a group including Daimler. (Sila)
  • Lighyear’s solar panels will harvest about 700 kWh annually in Northern European countries, which the start-up says will be good for over 50km of driving each day in the summer. This seems about in line with claims made by Sono Motors, adjusting for differences in vehicle size. (Lightyear)
  • Continental says that the latest brake by wire regenerative system can improve CO2 performance by over 8g per mile compared to lower technology systems -- all-electric cars benefit too, albeit not by as much. (Continental)
  • Toyota licenced the eQ all-electric city car design to Chinese start-up Singulato, who will launch a vehicle based on Toyota’s model called the iC3. (Reuters)
  • BMW CEO Krüger criticised the amount of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in Germany, saying that Beijing had more than 2 and a half times the number of charging stations than the entire country. (Handelsblatt)
  • Innolith claims to have a battery with an energy density of 1,000 Wh/kg and plans to produce it in 2022. (The Verge)
  • Nidec says it will begin mass producing wheel-hub motors rated at 100 kW in around 2023. (Nidec)
  • Electric motor developer C-Motive raised $2 million. (C-Motive)
  • Toyota is offering royalty-free access on around 24,000 patents relating to electric vehicle technology and provide technical support to manufacturers making their own vehicles using Toyota’s components. The royalty-free period lasts until 2030, so it is unclear whether companies will have to start making payments after that point. (Toyota)

March

  • Electric motor developer Linear Labs raised $4.5 million. (Linear Labs)
  • Toyota researchers suggested that battery ageing may have less to do with the charging cycle (the conventional wisdom) and could be more to do with variations in the manufacturing process. The firm sees promise in testing techniques that can grade batteries at the end of the production line and direct the highest performing units to higher revenue applications, plus improve OEM confidence in lifetime capability. (Toyota)
  • BMW, Daimler and VW have reportedly agreed to pursue a single strategy for electric vehicles that will enable the German industry association, the VDA, to lobby effectively. (Handelsblatt)
  • VW internal analysis reportedly shows that producing battery cells in Germany would increase costs by 20% compared to other options. (Handelsblatt)
  • Oslo will install wireless charging at taxi ranks in a bid to encourage take-up of an all-electric fleet by 2023. (Reuters)
  • Sono Motors unveiled the production version of the Sion, a plug-in hybrid that uses onboard solar panels to charge the battery. The 248 cells that cover the vehicle generate a peak 1.2 kW, which Sono says equates to 34 km of additional range per day. (Sono)
  • Ford is looking at options to secure reliable supplies of lithium. (Reuters)
  • Porsche says that electric cars have €6,000 - €10,000 higher material cost than comparable conventionally powered cars. (Porsche)
  • Charging provider Eneco acquired Dutch rival Flow Charging. (Eneco)
  • Spartan Motors showed off three all-electric commercial vehicles under the Utilimaster (Spartan)
  • FCA unveiled the Centoventi, all-electric city car concept at Geneva. Fiat says that in order to keep prices low, the car will have a modular battery pack. Buyers can opt for a cheaper, small, battery and then rent larger units for a limited time when they really need the range. (FCA)
  • McLaren’s CEO says solid state batteries will likely be ready for use in vehicles between 2023 and 2025. (Autocar)
  • Charging network ubitricity raised €20 million from investors including Honda. (ubitricity)
  • Mitsubishi unveiled the Engelberg Tourer SUV and suggested that the car can be used as a back-up generator if the customer adopts the firm’s Dendo house concept for connecting the car to the home grid. Previous concepts of this nature have centred on battery electric vehicles, thus haven’t been able to explore this idea before. (Mitsubishi)

February

  • The Indian government passed legislation to encourage uptake of electrified vehicles (dubbed FAME II) and received positive reviews from vehicle makers. (Economic Times of India)
  • Ola’s electric vehicle subsidiary raised $56 million. (Tech In Asia)
  • CharIN published standards for 1MW charging stations. Sadly, it is aimed at heavy trucks and buses rather than passenger cars in search of eye watering charging speeds. (CharIN)
  • The French government plans to invest €700 million into battery cell manufacturing and charging networks in the hope of encouraging a European (read Franco-German) battery champion. (Reuters)
  • WiTricity took on Qualcomm’s wireless charging assets in exchange for a minority shareholding. (Inside EVs)
  • Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi’s VC unit and BP invested in PowerShare, a Chinese company that coordinates transactions between EV owners and different charging networks. (RNM Alliance)
  • A test by the AAA, a US consumer group, found that battery electric vehicles lost 41% of the stated range (on average) when operating in sub zero conditions with climate control on. Tesla disputed the report. (CNBC)
  • Workhorse bagged an order from DHL for electric vans. (DHL) The COO will become the new CEO. (Workhorse)
  • Honda agreed a supply deal with CATL for 56 GWh of electric car batteries between now and 2027. (Honda)

January

  • Shell purchased charging network Greenlots. (Green Car Reports)
  • VW’s Electrify America charging subsidiary confirmed that at present the cost of a multi-charger station is between $500,000 - $1,000,000, but that part of this was future-proofing for 350 kW. (Inside EVs)
  • VW wants the MEB electric vehicle platform to be used by other OEMs and become a standard for them. (VW)
  • Tesla is buying ultracapacitor firm Maxwell Technologies for $218 million. (CNBC)
  • BP invested in Chinese charging provider PowerShare. (Deal Street Asia)
  • A comparison in charging between a Mercedes EQC, Audi e-tron and Jaguar I-Pace showed varying approaches to protecting the battery. Both the maximum charging rate and relationship between charging rate and state of charge varied across the three. The Audi charges quickest. (Inside EVs)
  • VW’s Electrify America charging network had to shut down several high-power charging stations due to problems with cooling. (VW) At the same time, the supplier of the affected part said that it has experienced short circuits in test parts. (Huber+Suhner)
  • Kaiyun Motors says it will start selling an all-electric pickup truck in the USA for $5,000. The low price does come with some drawbacks: top speed is 28 mph and loading capacity is small. (Detroit News)
  • Toyota confirmed the creation of a 49% / 51% battery joint venture with Panasonic. (Toyota)
  • Magna’s CEO said the industry was spending money inefficiently and needed greater collaboration in order to deliver affordable vehicles for customers. (Reuters)
  • Powertrain engineering consultant AVL revealed a swappable battery pack for small vehicles. The 2 kWh /9 kg unit uses a 48V architecture and can provide a maximum 5 kW output. (Autocar)
  • Wireless charging company Momentum Dynamics received investment from truckmaker Volvo. (ET)
  • Indian state-owned firm BHEL and Libcoin are in talks to create a battery plant in India, initially with 1 GWh annual capacity with a view to ramping up to 30 GWh over time. (ET)
  • Tesla launched another round of charging station price increases and moved to differentiated pricing by station rather than region, increasing revenue from more popular spots. (Electrek)
  • Nio completed a chain of battery swapping stations along the route from Beijing to Shanghai. (Auto Express)
  • Battery developer GBatteries says it can fully charge a 60 kWh pack in five minutes by simply adding a charging adaptor that contains an algorithm to control charging conditions. (TechCrunch)
  • Tesla started installing automatic barriers in Chinese supercharger locations that will only lower if the owner uses an app identifying the car as a Tesla. Although the internet was quick to brand the equipment as a potential solution to US pick-up truck owners blocking charging bays, they may want to remind themselves of the ground clearance these vehicles appeared to possess. The lack of ongoing evidence suggests the entire thing was overblown. (Electrek)
  • VW’s chairman said that entry level vehicles would have to rise in price if they had electric drivetrains. (Handelsblatt)
  • Ford’s product development chief said that electric vehicles would be “contribution margin positive”. (Ford)
  • Audi says that profits on electric cars will be similar to a well-equipped diesel. (Automotive News)
  • Panasonic demonstrated a concept electric vehicle that uses a 48V electric drive (probably fine for relatively low speed applications) and features removable modules for different job types. (Panasonic)
  • Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Singapore was not supportive of electric vehicles. (Straits Times)
  • BMW prefers hybrid vehicles to pure electric ones for sporty models because the weight penalty of larger batteries compromises dynamic performance. (Autocar)

2018

December

  • Groups of pick-up truck drivers in the USA have started an odd trend of blocking Tesla supercharging stations, leading to speculation about their motives. (Green Car Reports)
  • BMW does not think there will be any supply risks for batteries, even if demand grows and says its battery technology is equal or superior to the competition, when all characteristics are considered, and believes that electric motors are more important to make in-house than batteries. (BMW)
  • Nissan’s US operation said that it had learned several things about marketing electric vehicles: customers really want a decent range (200 miles+); because there is less of an existing infrastructure for electric cars than gasoline and diesel vehicles the customer needs to be provided with additional services; people want a wide choice of bodystyle; cultural and other factors mean that response is different across markets. (Green Car Reports)
  • PSA CEO Tavares believes that electrification will benefit cars more than SUVs because they have better aerodynamic efficiency and will therefore require smaller batteries to accomplish the same range. He also said PSA’s strategy for re-entering the US market is not based on sharing with other OEMs, but he remains open to the idea. (Automobile)
  • VW showed off a prototype charging station that uses the same batteries as MEB platform vehicles (either new, or more likely, used) to provide high capacity and fast charging, regardless of local infrastructure. The 360 kWh unit can provide charging rates of 100 kW. (VW)
  • Solid state battery developer 24M raised $22 million. (Inside EVs)
  • Geely is forming a joint venture with CATL to produce car batteries. (Geely)
  • Engie and Arval have launched a combined vehicle and charging infrastructure leasing scheme aimed at European businesses to help them adopt electric vehicles without a high upfront cost. (Engie)
  • Electric car maker Picchio has developed a battery swapping station which takes two minutes to complete the operation. The company believes that this will be a good solution for car sharing. (Picchio)
  • California will only buy zero emission buses from 2029 onwards and thinks it will retire the final fossil-fuel powered bus by 2040. (Economic Times of India)
  • A Bavarian consortium including BMW and Porsche unveiled a 450kW charger. (Porsche)
  • Honda will show a concept wireless vehicle to grid charging system at CES 2019. (Inside EVs)
  • President Trump’s top economic advisor said the administration wants to end subsidies for electric cars by around 2021 but such a move needs support from Congress. (Bloomberg)
  • CATL expects that battery cells on sale in 2020 will have an energy density of 300Wh/kg (up from 160 today), which will translate to 240 Wh/kg at a pack level. (CATL)
  • Aston Martin will begin offering retrofit electric powertrains for historic models. The concept is somewhat unique in that Aston Martin will attempt to engineer a solution that means the internal combustion engine, transmission and exhaust could be re-installed at a later date if the owner wished. (Aston Martin)

November

  • Charging network ChargePoint raised $240 million from investors including Daimler and BMW. (TechCrunch)
  • Chinese battery developer Qing Tao (Kushan) announced the start of a solid-state battery production line. The company claims 0.1 GWh capacity and to have spent $144 million on the technology. Its says that by 2020, when some big production contracts start, it will have 0.7 GWh of capacity. (Xinhua)
  • Porsche’s electric offerings will have material cost increases of between €6,000 to €10,000 compared to equivalent combustion engine cars, according to offer the record sources. (Bloomberg)
  • Hot on the heels of its new VW supply contract, SK Innovation said it was looking at four sites for a new battery plant in the US and could build a second European plant. (Yonhap)
  • Panasonic executives said that solid state battery technology will not mature for another decade. (Business Insider)
  • The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi VC fund invested in lithium ion battery developer Enevate. (Alliance Ventures)
  • 40% of Nissan Serena minivan buyers in Japan are choosing the series hybrid option. (Nissan)
  • Mitsubishi believe that plug-in hybrids will not be cost effective for a few years and that 60 miles EV-only range will be the standard in the next generation. (Autocar)
  • Nikola showed off a European version of its fuel cell truck saying that it was planning to have 700 North American hydrogen (production and) filling stations by 2028 and was sitting on an order bank worth $11 billion. (Nikola)
  • Further to previous announcements that it would use existing telecoms infrastructure to create electric charging stations, Deutsche Telekom said that its stations could support 11kW charging and would also build fast charging stations that provided 150 kW charging. (Economic Times of India)
  • Battery developer TIAX says its technology can reduce the amount of cobalt needed for batteries by four-fifths and a major automaker has already committed to use it. (Bloomberg)
  • GM believes gasoline will dominate North America sales for the “next couple of decades”. The firm is not intending for there to be “any AV/EV pickups”. (Detroit Free Press)

October

  • EDF Energy and Nuvve are launching a scheme in the UK that aims to recruit enough businesses to buy 1,500 chargers and create a virtual 15MW power station using vehicle to grid technology. (Inside EVs)
  • Austria will let electric vehicle owners drive faster than the traditional speed limit. (Green Car Reports)
  • Great Wall will invest in hydrogen filling station operator H2 Mobility. (Automotive News)
  • All non-electric vehicles will be banned from one street in the centre of London, starting in 2019. (FT)
  • Hyundai and Kia will offer solar roofs on vehicles from 2019, intending to progress from a first-generation model that is integrated into the roof structure; and a second generation that will be semi-transparent and can therefore be used in panoramic roofs. A version for battery electric vehicles is still under development and Hyundai hope it will ultimately be used on bonnets and roofs. Hyundai claim the roof mounted system can harvest enough electricity to charge a hybrid battery (presumably low teens of kWh) to between 30% and 60% over a day. (Hyundai)
  • BASF agreed a cobalt and nickel supply deal with Norilsk Nickel. (Reuters)
  • Sun Mobility has opened several battery swapping stations in India and intends to gradually move from two wheelers and buses to vehicles, once it can convince OEMs to install its batteries. (Autocar)
  • VinFast aims to open charging locations at 20,000 petrol stations run by PetroVietnam by 2020. (Reuters)
  • Battery developer Enevate received funding from LG Chem. The firm believes it can create batteries that achieve 75% charge in five minutes. (Enevate)
  • Volvo invested in charging firm FreeWire. (Volvo)
  • Battery maker Kokam was acquired by SolarEdge. (Inside EVs)
  • Nissan said it had enough Leaf vehicles enrolled in its vehicle-to-grid scheme to qualify as a power station under German regulations. (Nissan)
  • Audi said that more than 95% of electric vehicle batteries could be recycled, in a laboratory. It will now develop a higher volume process and a way to re-use the recovered raw materials. (VW)
  • Porsche suggested that it could charge US dealers between $300,000 to $400,000 each to partially offset some of the cost of superchargers the company proposes to install on their premises. (Automotive News)
  • US lawmakers proposed to remove the cap on federal rebates for zero emission vehicles. Under current rules, once a carmaker sells 200,000 units the $7,500 tax credit starts to drop. Tesla and GM would be the primary beneficiaries since they are already near or over the limit. (Yahoo)
  • Researchers think they have cracked the problem of high-power wireless charging. In a laboratory they demonstrated a 120 kW system (only slightly lower power than Tesla superchargers) working at 97% efficiency. (Inside EVs)
  • Workhorse launched the NGEN-1000 light commercial vehicle saying it had opted for a 100-mile range with a smaller battery to better compere on cost with diesel vehicles. (Workhorse)
  • BMW, Northvolt and Umicore created a joint venture to improve recycling of used electric car batteries. (BMW)
  • Bollinger announced an all-electric pick-up truck version of the SUV it has been developing. (Bollinger)
  • Ford and Varta are reportedly part of a yet-to-be-announced German battery consortium that will be supported by €1 billion of government cash and is set to be officially launched on 13th (Reuters)
  • Xing Mobility is developing a modular kit that it believes will be useful for retrofitting existing combustion-powered products. (Clean Technica)

September

  • Volvo Trucks said it will start selling electric trucks in California from 2020 onwards. (Volvo Trucks)
  • Lucid will use (VW-owned) Electrify America’s charging infrastructure. (Lucid)
  • Lucid believes that its competitive advantage lies in the ability to shrink the size of the powertrain and offer greater interior package than rivals. (CNN)
  • eMotorWerks is using 6,000 chargers installed in homes across California to provide a 30 MW virtual battery on the state’s energy markets. Charging station owners receive up to $80 per year to participate. (eMotorWerks)
  • Battery developer Lionano raised $22 million. (Lionano)
  • ABB doesn’t think battery swapping will work in India because the charging of the battery adds an extra layer of complexity. (Economic Times of India)
  • VW claimed to have developed a new prototype fuel cell that uses far less precious metals. (VW)
  • Caetanobus will use Toyota’s fuel cells for demonstrator vehicles it is making. (Toyota)
  • LG Chem signed a supply agreement with lithium miner Ganfeng Lithium running from 2019-2025. (Economic Times of India)
  • Start-up CyClean aims to combines zero emissions and cryptocurrency by making electric products, such as electric scooters and solar panels that reward users with the company’s proprietary cryptocurrency for using its products (seemingly paid for in old-fashioned hard currency). (CyClean)
  • Amazon is going to start offering third party chargers with full installation. (Electrek)
  • Truckmaker Kamaz and Cummins will develop electric powertrains for heavy vehicles. (Autocar)
  • VW’s TRATON truckmaking unit signed a cooperation agreement with Hino that will create a shared procurement arm and see the two partners jointly develop electrified powertrain. (VW)
  • Total acquired French electric vehicle charging provider G2mobility. (Total)
  • Unipart and Williams formed a joint venture called Hyperbat to produce batteries on a vacant Unipart site. The launch customer for the facility will be the Aston Martin Rapide E. The 90 jobs announced in the press release suggest the factory will not have a significant capacity. (Unipart)
  • ChargePoint intends to have 2.5 million chargers in operation by 2025, up from 45,000 today. (Green Car Reports)
  • Yamaha is trialling an electric battery swap scheme for scooters in Taiwan, in a pilot that looks very similar to the recently announced partnership between Panasonic and Honda. (Autocar)
  • Battery developer (and BMW partner) Solid Power raised $20 million, Hyundai was an investor. (Solid Power)
  • Chinese battery developer Farasis has raised over $1 billion and will build a European factory. (Inside EVs)
  • BYD announced a carbon tracking and banking scheme in partnership with VeChain. The initiative will collect trip data and parts usage information. (BYD)
  • VinFast will use LG Chem batteries and they will produce battery packs together in Vietnam. (VinFast)
  • JLR reportedly have chosen Samsung SDI to provide the batteries for next-generation battery electric vehicles. LG Chem supply the batteries for I-Pace. (Korea Times)
  • Suzuki and Toyota are reportedly planning battery electric vehicles running on 72V, rather than a higher voltage, for the Indian market. The partners had previously said the system was low cost. (Economic Times of India)
  • An Indian government minister said the country had a plan to increase electric vehicle sales to 15% of the total industry within five years and that subsidies were not required. (Business Standard)
  • A group of large UK commercial vehicle fleets have agreed to replace a combined 18,000 diesel vans with electric ones instead. (UN Climate Action Program)
  • Lion Smart demonstrated the potential energy density benefits of next generation batteries by fitting a 100 kWh battery into a BMW i3 (normal capacity = 33 kWh). (Green Car Reports)

August

  • Exide Industries and Leclanché are establishing a joint venture in India to make batteries for electric vehicles and stationary storage. (Inside EVs)
  • Battery developer Sila Nanotechnologies raised $70 million. (Inside EVs)
  • Faraday Future said pre-production builds were underway at its new factory. (Faraday)
  • Porsche’s rule of thumb is that battery energy density increases 5% each year and the company is working on charging at a higher rate than the already announced 350 kW. (Porsche)
  • Chief of the US UAW union wrote an op-ed piece calling for EV powertrain production to be located in the US and preserve jobs. (Detroit News)
  • Russian firm Kalashnikov unveiled an all-electric model called the CV-1 that it says will combine a 220 mile range with the looks of a stretched Yugo. Pricing and sales targets remain a mystery. (BBC)
  • Vietnamese company Vinfast, which intends to produce a new range of vehicles, signed an agreement to make electric buses using Siemens technology in a possible precursor to building the systems into cars. (Reuters)
  • NIO filed documents saying it intends to raise up to $1.8 billion through an IPO in New York. (NIO)
  • Lucid is reportedly in talks to with PIF, the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund that Elon Musk says may fund his bid to take Tesla The deal would see PIF invest $1 billion for a majority stake. (Reuters)
  • CEO Musk said Tesla could “maybe” make a car with a price of $25,000 “in about three years”. (CNBC)
  • Bollinger asked about access to Tesla’s charging network, but since the question was via Twitter, it seemed like it could be tongue-in-cheek. (InsideEVs)
  • Chinese solar equipment maker GCL is investigating car manufacturing on a new campus it is building near Nanjing. From the reports it wasn’t clear whether the intention would be to leverage solar power for cheap energy or to use solar as a power source for the vehicle itself. (Reuters)
  • Gyon said their products (sedan., SUV and crossover) will have ~360 mile range batteries that can be 80% charged in 10 minutes and 100% charged in 15 minutes. (Gyon)

July

  • Continental executives said the company is still unsure if battery cell production is “right” for the company and, if so, whether to go it alone or form a partnership. (Reuters)
  • Bollore’s Bluecar and Hanergy signed a cooperation agreement to develop solar powered cars. (Hanergy)
  • Mahle’s CEO said there were several projects underway using the same technology as the 48V BEV concept car it created. He also said Mahle’s base planning scenario for EVs in 2030 was 15% BEVs and 20% PHEV but that combined shares of up to 50% were possible in “extreme cases”. (Handelsblatt)
  • UK gas supplier Centrica invested in Israeli EV charging start-up Driivz as part of a $12 million round. (ET India)
  • Charging provider EV Connect raised $8 million to expand its coverage. (Inside EVs)
  • After earlier announcing trials in four regions, China said 17 cities will have trial EV battery recycling schemes and will work on a set of attractive policies to encourage uptake. (Reuters)
  • Charging network Volta, which uses advertising to fund electricity costs, raised $35 million. (TechCrunch)
  • A recent article said there are 487 prospective electric vehicle makers in China. (WSJ)
  • Panasonic suspending its relationship with a supplier over cobalt supplies that may be in breach of sanctions against Cuba. Batteries containing the affected material have been installed in Teslas since the beginning of the year but it is unclear whether there is any legal issue. (Reuters)
  • Honda and Panasonic are planning a trial involving battery swapping for motorcycles. There will be several sites with chargers where customers can drop off depleted battery packs and put in a fully charged one. (Business Leader)
  • Panasonic executives said the company has prototype batteries with 50% the cobalt content of current units and will have them on sale in two to three years. (Reuters)
  • Electric commercial vehicle maker Workhorse raised $6.1 million in debt. (Workhorse)
  • Hyundai’s CRADLE fund announced an investment in solid state battery developer Ionic Materials. The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance is already an investor. (Hyundai)
  • Magna’s CEO reiterated his company’s relatively bearish forecast for electric vehicle market share -- 5% by 2025, but has become more open minded on the very long term saying that 2030 is “anybody’s guess”. (Automotive News)
  • The Chinese government is reportedly planning a reduction in electric vehicle incentives in future, with range requirement increasing and per unit incentives going down. (Times of India)

June

  • BP are buying charging firm Chargemaster, having previously invested in FreeWire. (Reuters)
  • Deutsche Post said it intended to continue producing Streetscooter electric vans until at least 2020 but that the company did not want to be an automaker and was looking at options including an IPO or sale. (FAZ)
  • A research consortium led by the Japanese government said it is aiming for a $90 per kWh battery pack cost for solid state batteries by 2030. (Green Car Congress)
  • A study by AlixPartners predicted that in 2030 battery electric vehicles will account for 20% of US sales, 30% in Europe and 35% in China. The assessment also concluded that the next wave of electric vehicles would cost OEMs $255 billion, yet many would lose money on the new models. (AlixPartners)
  • China is reportedly developing a new charging standard capable of 900 kW. (Inside EVs)
  • CHAdeMO’s maximum rating has been upgraded to 400 kW in a forthcoming generation of products. (Inside EVs)
  • VW invested $100 million in solid state battery developer QuantumScape and formed a JV with the intent of mass producing solid state batteries by 2025. (VW)
  • The Chinese city of Shenzen said that all taxis in the city must be electric. (China Daily)
  • After Deutsche Post parted ways with the executive who championed StreetScooter, media reporting implied the division’s future could be affected by forthcoming restructuring. (Handelsblatt)
  • Porsche launched a charging station consolidation service. For a monthly fee of €2.50, users can charge at a wide range of different providers (nearest site recommended via integration with the car’s navigation) and the app will handle payment electronically (on top of the monthly fee). Porsche says that “in principle” owners of other brands can use the same service. (Porsche)
  • GM and Honda agreed to collaborate on next generation batteries. The partners will use GM’s battery chemistry as the basis for the collaboration and the intent is for GM to supply Honda with battery packs. (Honda)
  • Panasonic say they are working on a cobalt-free battery chemistry. (Inside EVs)
  • Johnson Matthey said it would start production of a new low cobalt battery material called enhanced lithium nickel oxide from around 2021. (Reuters)
  • Voltaiq, a maker of battery management software, raised $6.6. million. (Press release)
  • Renault started selling the battery for the Master and Kangoo electric commercial vehicles on a standalone basis. The 33kWh pack can be obtained for €7,400 (that’s €224 per kWh for a retail customer). (Renault)
  • A question on a point in time for cost parity between ICE and BEVs left FCA executives stumped and reaching for their “crystal ball”, they finally settled on not before 2025, “best case”. (FCA)

May

  • StreetScooter announced an order for 200 vehicles from a milk delivery firm. (Handelsblatt)
  • Rivian Automotive announced $200 million in debt financing. (Rivian)
  • BP invested $20 million in battery developer StoreDot (Daimler are already an investor). (Inside EVs)
  • Honda is reportedly discussing production volumes of 100,000 units per year for an electric car battery supply contract with CATL -- the undisclosed program bears all the hallmarks of the Honda Urban EV concept. (Electrek)
  • Executives clarified that although Toyota will offer solid state batteries in the early 2020s, it won’t be “on a mass production basis”. (Wards)
  • Chakratec, developers of chargers augmented by flywheels, rather than batteries, raised $4.4 million. (Charged EVs)
  • Arrival won a trial electric delivery van contract from UPS, adding to earlier orders from Royal Mail. (Journal Auto)
  • Geely’s LEVC published the results of a study that showed taxi drivers experienced lower stress when driving an electrified vehicle. (LEVC)
  • Nissan launched a new offering in the UK that provides solar panels, stationary storage and home energy management (potentially including vehicle charging). Customers will have a choice of either brand new or used electric vehicle batteries. (Nissan)
  • Enel’s eMotorWerks unit announced a new charging product that balances electrical load using software and makes it easier for fleets to install additional charging units as the number of electric vehicles grows. (Enel)
  • ElringKlinger will supply battery systems for Sono Motors, a start-up planning a city car augmented with solar charging. (Economic Times of India)
  • Rolls-Royce’s CEO said the new architecture underpinning Cullinan, but to be shared with other future models, is “ready for electrification and other changes as well”. (Autocar)
  • Fisker may change their plan for the EMotion sportscar and go back to solid state batteries at launch (having previously said they were switching from solid state to conventional LG cells). CEO Henrik Fisker said he was “pushing the team” to get the technology ready for a 2020 launch. (Inside EVs)
  • Motorhome maker Winnebago and Motiv Power are creating a new electrified commercial vehicle platform with an expected range of 85 - 125 miles. Winnebago will also invest in Motiv Power. (Green Car Congress)
  • Renault and Nissan will reportedly use batteries sourced from CATL for China-market BEVs. (Electrek)
  • Nidec launched a 320 kW charger with an inbuilt 160 kWh battery that reduces grid drain to 50kW. (Inside EVs)
  • Charging station supplier Clipper Creek has started offering used chargers. (Clipper Creek)
  • Daimler said it will buy batteries from CATL but declined to give volumes or name affected vehicles. (Handelsblatt)
  • Battery maker EcoFlow raised $4 million and may raise a Series B this year. (Deal Street Asia)
  • BMW is working with Sila Nanotechnologies on new battery materials that could increased battery storage capacity without needing new production lines. (Inside EVs)
  • Daimler is ceasing production of home storage batteries, saying that in future it will offer third party products more suited to stationary storage applications. Daimler intends to continue to supply used vehicle batteries for industrial storage units. (Manager Magazin)

April

  • Solid state battery supplier Ionic Materials announced that including the (previously announced) investment from Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, it raised $65 million in its latest round. (Inside EVs)
  • Dana launched a series of powertrain modules aimed at off-highway applications. (Dana)
  • Hubject and Daimler announced a successful pilot scheme where the vehicle and charging point exchange encrypted certificates through the charging lead, enabling payment to be made remotely. (Hubject)
  • Indian ride hailing company Ola set a target of 1 million EVs in its fleet, including mini vehicles, by 2021. (Autocar)
  • A long list of OEMs are reportedly in talks with VW-BMW-Daimler-Ford European charging network Ionity to join the network. Those listed include Volvo, FCA, PSA, JLR and Tesla. (Sued Deutsche)
  • Indian firm Sun Mobility opened a battery swapping station for electric bikes and mini vehicles in Bengaluru, with plans to expand the network across India. (Economic Times of India)
  • Following reports that Dyson had relinquished solid state battery patents, seemingly contradicting its prior battery strategy, the company said the patents involved had been replaced with “better” technology and the move reflected the need for the specific patterns, rather than a turn away from solid state. (Green Car Reports)
  • A Spanish study concluded that the current generation of electric cars only pay back the increased upfront price versus an ICE vehicle when the owner travels 13,000 km or more each year -- the authors pointed out that this distance is unlikely in urban environments. (Europa Press)
  • Mercedes executives said the brand is planning an all-electric luxury car at the same level as the S-Class. (Autocar)
  • EVgo announced that it would build a dedicated charging network for GM’s US Maven car sharing service to support the Maven Gig product for ride hailing drivers. (EVgo)
  • Ferrari CEO Marchionne resorted to hand gestures rather than words whilst trying to deflect interview questions about a mysterious “silent” test mule spotted near Ferrari’s Fiorano test track but ultimately conceded “there could be a Ferrari that you could run silently”. (Bloomberg)
  • Deutsche Post is reportedly looking at an IPO for its electric van producing Street Scooter (Bloomberg)
  • Ford executives said that it would not be worth producing electric cars with annual volumes below 40,000. (Reuters)

March

  • SF Motors unveiled two of their planned all-electric three car portfolio -- both SUVs. (TechCrunch)
  • Bollinger increased the largest battery pack it will offer to 120 kWh, providing 200 miles of range (Electrek)
  • Tesla says that its large battery installation in Australia is being underpaid for the grid stabilisation it provides because the current billing rules do not start counting power supplied until six seconds after the request is made (Tesla says it responds almost instantaneously). (Sydney Morning Herald)
  • Audi’s CEO wants the brand to sell 200,000 all-electric vehicles by 2021 and is reportedly contemplating actions as radical as only offering the next generation TT and A8 as BEVs. (Manager Magazin)
  • Nissan started offering “refabricated” battery packs for the Nissan Leaf -- using a combination of new and good condition used components. At the moment, the offer is for Japan only. Pricing for a 40 kWh packs is around $7,800, giving an effective per kWh price of $195. (Nissan)
  • Rimac announced a joint venture with China’s Camel Group (one of Rimac’s investors) to build an electric vehicle components factory in Hubei province, China. Rimac will take a 40% stake in the business. (China Daily)
  • EVelozcity founder Stefan Krause said the company has around $1 billion in investments and commitments. The company has grown to include 100 staff and wants 300 by year end 2018. (Forbes)
  • Nissan aims to produce cars with solid state batteries by 2030, with 2025 as a stretch objective. (Next Green Car)
  • China will start trial EV battery recycling programs in four locations. (Reuters)
  • Goodyear said it has created a tyre specifically for electric vehicles. (Goodyear)
  • Daimler expects that electric vehicle batteries will have far higher concentrations of nickel to reduce dependence on cobalt. Executives talked about nickel:manganes:cobalt mix moving from 6:2:2 to 9:0.5:0.5. (Reuters)
  • The hydrogen fuelling consortium owned by Toyota, Nissan and Honda amongst others was legally established as H2 Mobility LLC. (Honda)
  • The European Union published a report into areas of standardisation and improvements for vehicle batteries; particularly second life use and recycling. (EU)
  • Mahindra and LG Chem will jointly develop batteries with the intent of creating a low cost, high energy density, chemistry that will aid market share growth for electric vehicles in India. (Mahindra)
  • CHAdeMO are working on a 400 kW / 1,000V standard, for release soon. (Inside EVs)
  • US rules saying that electric cars will have to make noise have been pushed back so that full compliance is not required until September 2020. (Engadget)
  • Dyson is recruiting 300 engineers to add to its existing 400 person electric vehicle team. (BBC)
  • Researchers released a video of a Chevrolet Bolt battery pack teardown -- they say the battery capacity is 57 kWh, not the 60 kWh stated by GM. (Green Car Reports)

February

  • BP’s latest energy outlook forecast a peak demand for oil in the 2030s as growth in electric car sales reduces fossil fuel consumption. Under one scenario, 30% of vehicle miles in 2040 would be electric -- implying a significantly higher than 30% share of new car sales at that point in time. (Reuters)
  • Delivery firm UPS said it was working with electric vehicle start-up Workhorse on a bespoke electrified delivery vehicle. The collaboration initially hopes to create a test fleet of 50 vehicles. (The Verge)
  • Researchers published a paper indicating that lithium ion batteries could be charged much faster if fibre optic sensors were fitted to monitor heat within the battery, without causing large reductions in battery life. (Engadget)
  • UK electricity network monopoly, National Grid, is proposing 100 high power charging stations along key motorway routes to provide stations within a 50 mile radius to 90% of motorists. (Engadget)
  • Apple are reportedly changing their strategy on cobalt purchasing in the face of higher demand for the material created by electric vehicles. (The Verge)
  • Toyota announced an electric motor magnet design it says reduces rare earth material content by 50%. (Toyota)
  • Mahindra unveiled an electric platform called MESMA that can accommodate a range of battery sizes between 21 kWh and 54 kWh (in extended wheelbase form). Initial production vehicles will be released before 2021. (Autocar)
  • Faraday Future has reportedly raised a further $1.5 billion, over $500 million of which is in the bank. The company held a special presentation to reassure suppliers and a smaller product, dubbed FF81 is now rumoured to be in development. (Business Insider)
  • China has changed its subsidy scheme for electric cars. Vehicles with a range of beyond 400km now receive a larger incentive, while the qualifying level for any amount has been raised to a range of 150km. (Bloomberg)
  • 70% of respondents to a Spanish survey believe all cars will soon become electrified. (Facon Auto)
  • Lithium-ion battery maker Farasis Energy raised almost $800 million. (Deal Street Asia)
  • Chinese electric car designer SKIO Matrix has reportedly raised $159 million in funding (China Money Network)
  • Solid state battery developer Ionic materials received $65 million in investment from Alliance Ventures (Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi) amongst others. (Deal Street Asia)
  • The Ionity charging network, backed by a group of OEMs, released a (not very detailed) map of its intended charging network in Europe. (Electrek)
  • Several European carmakers are reportedly seeing growing waiting lists for their all-electric products. (Golem)
  • Porsche and Audi executives said that the two firms would save around 30% investment by sharing an EV platform, in development for launch around 2025. (Engadget)
  • Electric vehicle start-up Xiaopeng (XPENG) has investors for a $350 million series B round; Foxconn is joining existing investor Alibaba (said to own 10% of the company). Xpeng has raised $800 million in total. (XPENG)
  • BP invested $5 million in electric charging company FreeWire and plans to use the company’s charging equipment at petrol stations in Europe. (Reuters)
  • European EV charging operators Allego and Fortnum will create interoperability between their sites. (Charged EVs)
  • Faraday Future filed a lawsuit against Evelozcity, founded by Faraday’s ex-CFO, accusing it of stealing trade secrets by recruiting Faraday employees. Evelozcity called the allegations “recklessly inaccurate”. (China Money Network)
  • Autocar magazine claimed that Volvo’s first all-electric car will be a hatchback, similar to the 40.2 concept. (Autocar)
  • Toyota agreed a series of projects with Chubu Electric Power on use of second-life vehicle batteries in stationary storage facilities and battery recycling. The companies hope to have a 10,000 battery system by 2020. (Toyota)

January

  • Jia Yueting, the internet tycoon behind Faraday Future, Lucid and LeSEE saw affiliate Leshi say it was seeking equity stakes in the companies in lieu of debts incurred. (Deal Street Asia)
  • Madrid will implement a city-centre zero emissions zone from June 2018. The zero emissions moniker applies to vehicles wishing to enter the zone -- residents and their guests are treated more leniently. (Europa Press)
  • Jaguar are rumoured to have decided that the replacement for the XJ luxury saloon will be all-electric. (Autocar)
  • Having said that there will be 16 BEVs and 24 hybrid vehicles by 2022 (some of which could be the same nameplates), Ford said that there would be two platforms -- a Ford version and a low cost (Zotye-led) design. There will be: 13 BEVs in Asia; 7 BEVs in North America and; 3 BEVs in Europe. Although offering only a small range in Europe, Ford says this will be a “strong” BEV portfolio. (Ford)
  • After setting a target of 80% of vehicles would be electrified by 2023, PSA’s CEO said all vehicles will be electrified by 2025. (Les Echos)
  • Valeo said that a BEV with a 48V system could achieve a retail price of $7,500 for a city car. (Valeo)
  • Henrik Fisker said in an interview that his company’s research into solid state batteries indicates units costs of around $65 per kWh are realistic when the technology matures. (CNET)
  • Ford has set a new electric vehicle investment target of $11 billion by 2022, funding 40 electrified vehicles, of which 16 will be BEVs. (Reuters)
  • Kia said it was planning 16 electrified vehicles -- 10 x hybrid/FHEV; 5 x BEV and 1 Fuel cell -- leaving 22 for Hyundai (based on prior announcements). (Kia)
  • Panasonic has developed a scalable electric vehicle platform suitable for bikes and small EVs. (Panasonic)
  • Denso said it would partner with FLOSFIA, a spin-out from Kyoto University, to develop next generation inverters for electric vehicles. (Denso)
  • LG Chem will expand its Michigan battery plant that supplies the Chevrolet Bolt, amongst others. Capacity will increase from around 40,000 packs annually to 50,000 (note that in 2017, Bolt sold about 27,000 units). The company is reportedly investigating the additional of a further 2 assembly lines. (ET News)
  • Sales of electrified vehicles in Norway passed 50% in 2017. 20.9% of vehicles were fully electric, 18.4% were PHEVs and 12.9% were non-plug in hybrids. There were also a number of used fully electric cars imported from other markets. Average new car CO2 emissions were 82 g/km. (BIL)

2017

March

  • Charging provider Eneco acquired Dutch rival Flow Charging. (Eneco)
  • Spartan Motors showed off three all-electric commercial vehicles under the Utilimaster (Spartan)
  • FCA unveiled the Centoventi, all-electric city car concept at Geneva. Fiat says that in order to keep prices low, the car will have a modular battery pack. Buyers can opt for a cheaper, small, battery and then rent larger units for a limited time when they really need the range. (FCA)
  • McLaren’s CEO says solid state batteries will likely be ready for use in vehicles between 2023 and 2025. (Autocar)
  • Charging network ubitricity raised €20 million from investors including Honda. (ubitricity)
  • Mitsubishi unveiled the Engelberg Tourer SUV and suggested that the car can be used as a back-up generator if the customer adopts the firm’s Dendo house concept for connecting the car to the home grid. Previous concepts of this nature have centred on battery electric vehicles, thus haven’t been able to explore this idea before. (Mitsubishi)

February

  • The Indian government passed legislation to encourage uptake of electrified vehicles (dubbed FAME II) and received positive reviews from vehicle makers. (Economic Times of India)
  • Ola’s electric vehicle subsidiary raised $56 million. (Tech In Asia)
  • CharIN published standards for 1MW charging stations. Sadly, it is aimed at heavy trucks and buses rather than passenger cars in search of eye watering charging speeds. (CharIN)
  • The French government plans to invest €700 million into battery cell manufacturing and charging networks in the hope of encouraging a European (read Franco-German) battery champion. (Reuters)
  • WiTricity took on Qualcomm’s wireless charging assets in exchange for a minority shareholding. (Inside EVs)
  • Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi’s VC unit and BP invested in PowerShare, a Chinese company that coordinates transactions between EV owners and different charging networks. (RNM Alliance)
  • A test by the AAA, a US consumer group, found that battery electric vehicles lost 41% of the stated range (on average) when operating in sub zero conditions with climate control on. Tesla disputed the report. (CNBC)
  • Workhorse bagged an order from DHL for electric vans. (DHL) The COO will become the new CEO. (Workhorse)
  • Honda agreed a supply deal with CATL for 56 GWh of electric car batteries between now and 2027. (Honda)

January

  • Shell purchased charging network Greenlots. (Green Car Reports)
  • VW’s Electrify America charging subsidiary confirmed that at present the cost of a multi-charger station is between $500,000 - $1,000,000, but that part of this was future-proofing for 350 kW. (Inside EVs)
  • VW wants the MEB electric vehicle platform to be used by other OEMs and become a standard for them. (VW)
  • Tesla is buying ultracapacitor firm Maxwell Technologies for $218 million. (CNBC)
  • BP invested in Chinese charging provider PowerShare. (Deal Street Asia)
  • A comparison in charging between a Mercedes EQC, Audi e-tron and Jaguar I-Pace showed varying approaches to protecting the battery. Both the maximum charging rate and relationship between charging rate and state of charge varied across the three. The Audi charges quickest. (Inside EVs)
  • VW’s Electrify America charging network had to shut down several high-power charging stations due to problems with cooling. (VW) At the same time, the supplier of the affected part said that it has experienced short circuits in test parts. (Huber+Suhner)
  • Kaiyun Motors says it will start selling an all-electric pickup truck in the USA for $5,000. The low price does come with some drawbacks: top speed is 28 mph and loading capacity is small. (Detroit News)
  • Toyota confirmed the creation of a 49% / 51% battery joint venture with Panasonic. (Toyota)
  • Magna’s CEO said the industry was spending money inefficiently and needed greater collaboration in order to deliver affordable vehicles for customers. (Reuters)
  • Powertrain engineering consultant AVL revealed a swappable battery pack for small vehicles. The 2 kWh /9 kg unit uses a 48V architecture and can provide a maximum 5 kW output. (Autocar)
  • Wireless charging company Momentum Dynamics received investment from truckmaker Volvo. (ET)
  • Indian state-owned firm BHEL and Libcoin are in talks to create a battery plant in India, initially with 1 GWh annual capacity with a view to ramping up to 30 GWh over time. (ET)
  • Tesla launched another round of charging station price increases and moved to differentiated pricing by station rather than region, increasing revenue from more popular spots. (Electrek)
  • Nio completed a chain of battery swapping stations along the route from Beijing to Shanghai. (Auto Express)
  • Battery developer GBatteries says it can fully charge a 60 kWh pack in five minutes by simply adding a charging adaptor that contains an algorithm to control charging conditions. (TechCrunch)
  • Tesla started installing automatic barriers in Chinese supercharger locations that will only lower if the owner uses an app identifying the car as a Tesla. Although the internet was quick to brand the equipment as a potential solution to US pick-up truck owners blocking charging bays, they may want to remind themselves of the ground clearance these vehicles appeared to possess. The lack of ongoing evidence suggests the entire thing was overblown. (Electrek)
  • VW’s chairman said that entry level vehicles would have to rise in price if they had electric drivetrains. (Handelsblatt)
  • Ford’s product development chief said that electric vehicles would be “contribution margin positive”. (Ford)
  • Audi says that profits on electric cars will be similar to a well-equipped diesel. (Automotive News)
  • Panasonic demonstrated a concept electric vehicle that uses a 48V electric drive (probably fine for relatively low speed applications) and features removable modules for different job types. (Panasonic)
  • Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Singapore was not supportive of electric vehicles. (Straits Times)
  • BMW prefers hybrid vehicles to pure electric ones for sporty models because the weight penalty of larger batteries compromises dynamic performance. (Autocar)

December

  • Shenzhen completed the transition of its public transport bus fleet to 100% all-electric vehicles, meeting an earlier target commitment. The Chinese city has around 16,500 buses in service. Taxis are next on the list. (EV Obsession)
  • Spanish company Endesa said that its incentive scheme for employees to buy electric cars was singlehandedly responsible for around 7% of the industry volume for electric cars. (Europa Press)
  • NIO launched the ES8, saying that the vehicle came with an advanced driver assistance system, battery swapping (in 3 minutes) and battery rental. There is a 70 kWh battery pack, providing over 500 km of range. (NIO)
  • Morgan said that it would put its electric three-wheeler into production in late 2018 in partnership with Frazer-Nash. The car will have a range of around 120 miles. (Auto Express)
  • Chinese electric vehicle maker Kandi said that it will buy Jinhua An Kao for $4 million because of the company’s battery swapping technology. (Kandi)
  • The founder of the solid state battery firm Dyson purchased to help it deliver an electric car program has left the company. It isn’t clear if this will affect plans for the vehicle. (Autocar)
  • McLaren engineers said that half an hour of high performance track driving requires battery capacity equivalent to 500 miles of on-road driving. (Autocar)
  • Nikola trucks received a $10 million investment from Wabco. (Autocar)
  • Faraday Future has reportedly secured an additional $1 billion in funding. (The Verge)
  • The US electric infrastructure scheme that VW has agreed to fund as part of its emissions settlement picked Greenlots to carry out installation work. (Green Car Reports)
  • Mysterious electric car start-up EVELOZCITY was reportedly created by ex-Faraday Future executives with backing from would-be Faraday Future investors put off by the behaviour of the controlling shareholder. (Electrek)
  • BMW partnered with Solid Power to develop solid state batteries for a future electric vehicle platform. (Solid Power)
  • 2050 Motors said that it had signed a final agreement with Chinese partner Aoxin Automotive that confirmed the arrangements to launch the e-Go EV. The company also hopes that the Las Vegas authorities were sufficiently impressed to give it the sire for a factory. (2050 Motors)
  • Alibaba has invested an undisclosed amount to take a stake of around 10% in electric vehicle start-up Xpeng (Xiaopeng) Motors. (Deal Street Asia)
  • Faraday Future was the subject of a scathing in-depth article which compared the company’s funding model to a ponzi scheme and said executive management was in chaos. (The Verge)
  • Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi said it hopes to sell electric cars in India. (Zeebiz)
  • Electric car start-up NIO is reportedly considering an IPO in 2018, in addition to a possible sale of 30%-40% of its US arm, which concentrates on BEV technology rather than carmaking. (Bloomberg)
  • Dutch charging network operator Fastned raised €12 million through a public bond to fund expansion. (Fastned)
  • Hyundai believes that battery prices will stop falling by 2020 because rising raw material prices will cancel out the benefits of design improvements and manufacturing scale. (Green Car Reports)
  • A group of Japanese companies including Toyota, Nissan and Honda that previously agreed to work together on hydrogen infrastructure said that they would form a company to achieve their objectives. (Honda)
  • Tesla introduced a fair use policy for supercharger stations that forbids vehicles charging for commercial purposes. The exclusion appears to apply to new vehicles only. (Electrek)
  • As a guide to the cost of high-performance electrification infrastructure, ABB announced that it had secured a contract to supply 600kW and 400kW chargers for a bus route in Nantes, France operated by 20 vehicles. The cost? A cool $20 million. (Inside EVs)
  • A group of OEMs have pledged to source raw materials for electric vehicles in an ethical and environmentally responsible way with monitoring by a 3rd BMW (which earlier announced a unilateral plan) is part of the group. (Green Car Reports)
  • A consortium of German companies, including Porsche and BMW, is working on a project called FastCharge to develop a prototype 450kW charger in 2018. If successful, the Ionity JV (of which both are members) could work on this technology, rather than the 350kW currently planned. (Inside EVs)
  • Compact electric car start-up Uniti says that it will provide five years of free electricity with each model for customers in Sweden. (Uniti). The company said that its launch product would be on sale for between €15,000 and €20,000. It can be reserved with a fully refundable deposit of €149. (Uniti)

November

  • Former BMW designer Chris Bangle unveiled the REDS all-electric city car. The vehicle uses an aluminium spaceframe and incorporates a solar panel to augment battery charging. Chinese truckmaker CHTC will produce the vehicle. The launch date isn’t yet specified, but will be soon. (Autocar)
  • Swedish start-up Uniti will unveil their prototype all-electric city car on 7th The company says that the vehicle can be produced with a fully automated process. The company aims for deliveries to begin in 2017. (Autocar)
  • Lucid announced that it had moved into snazzy new headquarters in California. (Lucid)
  • The German government has proposed to subsidise up to 80% of the additional cost of electric buses to encourage uptake. Critics said that the proposed funding was only sufficient for around 400 vehicles. (Golem)
  • The US Department of Energy published a study of electrical charging infrastructure now and in the future. In addition to creating some studies for future growth it includes some detailed statistics on current operators. (DoE)
  • China will rollout green licence plates nationally, following a trial in three states. The plates are intended to help cities differentiate between electrically and conventionally powered vehicles more easily and owners of vehicles already on the road can apply to swap their plates for the new version. (EV Obsession)
  • According to leaked internal emails, Faraday Future is close to obtaining investment but employees haven’t been turning up for work. (The Verge)
  • Ionity, the charging network JV between BMW, Daimler, Ford and VW, said it had partners for about half the 400 sites it is planning in Europe. Shell will be the partner for 80 stations in 10 countries. (Inside EVs)
  • Utilising some of the technology contained in their fuel cell trucks, Nikola unveiled the Zero off-road vehicle. It is offered with a range of battery packs, the largest being 125 kWh. (Futurism)
  • Taiwanese start-up Xing Mobility said that it would launch an all-electric supercar named Miss R, with the equivalent of over 1,300 hp and capable of 0-60mph in 1.8 seconds, in 2018. The primary purpose of the vehicle is as a technology demonstrator for the company’s electric drivertrain technology. (Xing Mobility)
  • Mahindra & Mahindra announced that it was collaborating with Uber to put electric vehicles in the hands of Indian drivers. (Mahindra)
  • WiTricity and Texas Instruments will collaborate on wireless charging products with improved vehicle to infrastructure communication. WiTricity says that microcontrollers supplied by Texas Instruments will be able to overcome some of the practical problems of first generation wireless charging such as misalignment and inefficient transfer rates. (WiTricity)
  • Fisker announced that it was applying for patents on breakthrough solid state battery technology that it believes can be commercialised by 2023. Fisker says that the new battery could charge in one minute. (Green Car Congress)
  • eMotorWerks has created a partnership with ca to make a sell an electric vehicle charging platform aimed at the Canadian market. (Press Release)
  • A report by Amnesty International into ethical sourcing of cobalt in batteries ranked Renault lowest of a (non-exhaustive) group of automotive OEMs. BMW and Tesla were joint first, but still only merited half marks. Page 78 is the key summary. (Amnesty International)
  • Toyota and Suzuki announced a cooperation to sell electric cars in India. The current working assumption (at MoU stage) is that Suzuki will make the vehicles and Toyota will sell a badge-engineered version. (Toyota)
  • GM CEO Mary Barra said at an investor conference that the next two all-electric vehicles will be Bolt-based crossovers, one of which will be a Buick. The company will then launch an all-new EV platform in 2021 that it expects to reduce costs by over 30% -- at which stage the company expects EVs to be profitable. (GM)
  • Chinese EV start-up NIO has reportedly raised $1 billion from investors including Tencent, giving the firm a $5 billion valuation. (Reuters)
  • EON and Clever are planning to build a 180 station charging network between Norway and Italy with a maximum highway distance of 180km between stations. (Bloomberg)
  • Continental’s CEO said that the company was interested in making battery cells, but with solid state rather than lithium ion chemistry. He said that the company would prefer to do this in partnership with others. (Reuters)
  • Faraday Future has recently suffered from several executive departures, including the CFO (with whom the company is now engaged in a war of words / lawsuits) and CTO. (Digital Trends)
  • LeEco founder Jia Yueting said he plans to sell his stake in Lucid Motors, indicating he will focus on Faraday Future. (Global Times)
  • Researchers in the Netherlands showed off a Tesla Model S that they have converted to use a hydrogen fuel cell as a secondary power source. (Futurism)
  • Lamborghini unveiled a concept for an all-electric supercar and said that it was working on super capacitors to overcome weight problems with batteries. They appear to have thought of everything except how the car will go over speed bumps. (Autocar)
  • OSVehicle unveiled their modular self-driving electric car called EDIT. (Medium)
  • Baidu is reportedly leading a new round of investment in Chinese electric car maker WMMotor. Tencent may also be involved in the funding. (China Money Network)
  • Deutsche Telekom is looking to integrate electric car charging into local telephone exchanges in Germany. The company has over 330,000 locations in the country and has earmarked 12,000 for potential conversion to charging stations. (Golem)
  • US company Workhorse have unveiled their next range-extended product: the N-Gen van. The vehicle has an electric only range of around 100 miles and has a novel optional extra: a drone that docks on the roof to increase the number of delivery drops the vehicle can make. Patent attorneys at Daimler and Amazon: pay close attention… (Green Car Reports)
  • US draft tax legislation proposes to eliminate the tax credit for electric cars (up to $7,500 depending on how many vehicles the OEM has produced). (Detroit News)
  • The European charging network set-up by BMW, Daimler, Ford and VW has been named Ionity. It aims to create 20 charging stations in 2017, with 400 sites planned by 2020. (Ford)
  • The CEO of Workhorse said that it has $300 million worth of pre-orders for its W-15 plug-in hybrid pick-up truck. (autoblog)
  • SF Motors has purchased a former military Humvee plant and intends to create 430 jobs when it reopens. (LA Times)

October

  • Energy supplier Enel has acquired vehicle-to-grid specialist eMotorWerks. (Inside EVs)
  • BMW opened a new stationary storage facility at its Leipzig plant using second-life i3 batteries. The plant is connected to the public grid, modular and can be expanded in future. BMW said that this demonstrated profitable second-life usage. (BMW)
  • Daimler said that its battery storage plant in Hannover was now operational and provided 5MW of flexible storage to the public grid, with a plan to achieve 17.4 MWh of capacity. The facility has two aims: it provides on-demand electricity to the grid and is also used as a “living storage” for batteries that may be called upon to replace those in service. (Enercity)
  • Daimler made a strategic investment in The Mobility House, a company that sells electric vehicle charging equipment and vehicle-to-grid services. (Daimler)
  • Honda’s CEO said that the company thought zero emission vehicles were probably not well-suited to the US market. (Reuters)
  • Toshiba said that it had developed a new anode technology for lithium ion batteries that would allow a battery to be charged in 6 minutes. The technology will be launched in 2019. (Inside EVs)
  • A recent UBS study highlighted a number of commodities that would be overwhelmed by substantial growth in electric vehicles (assuming future battery technologies were essentially the same as today and no recycling loop had developed). (com)
  • Shell launched a charging service in the UK offering 50 kW chargers on petrol forecourts. The company aims to have 10 sites by the end of 2017 and will also launch in the Netherlands. This is a separate scheme to NewMotion, the charging company Shell recently acquired. (Inside EVs)
  • Chinese backed electric car start-up SF Motors said that it had bought InEVit -- a start-up working on energy storage and electric powertrain products. (Reuters)
  • Charging company Hubject said that it had received additional funding to expand into the US and China. Note that BMW, Daimler and VW are among the company’s shareholders. (Hubject)
  • Opel dealers in Norway have been told to stop taking orders for Ampera-e vehicles (Chevrolet Bolt) and to put customers on a reservation list, with a likely delivery date no sooner than 2019. (no)
  • Volvo said that Polestar will have a three car line-up, with all vehicles built in Chengdu, China. The first product will be the Polestar 1, a carbon-bodied, 600hp 2+2 coupe range-extended PHEV. The factory will be completed in 2018 with first sales in 2019 and the vehicle will be available on subscription, rather than for. The Polestar 2 will be a mid-sized BEV (i.e. S40/60 sized) launching in late 2019 and the Polestar 3 will be a BEV SUV. (Volvo)
  • VW Group CEO Müller said in an interview that electric cars “may not be as profitable as combustion models” in the next generation but the company believes there will be “a tipping point between the two in five to seven years, which will help balance our revenues”. (Autocar)
  • Shell will buy charging network operator NewMotion. (NewMotion)
  • The consortium announced last year by Ford, Daimler, BMW and VW for a European charging network has now established a company to develop the business. The headquarters are in Munich and there are reportedly 50 people working on the project. (Manager Magazin)
  • Chakratec and DBT unveiled a fast charging station that uses flywheels to store energy before it is transferred to the vehicle (similar to some of the early KERS Formula 1 solutions) in order to augment the local grid. (Charged EVs)
  • Bolloré said that they have sold 200 electric buses so far and aim to produce around 50 next year. (Les Echos)
  • Renault created a new subsidiary called Renault Energy Services. The group will concentrate on developing energy infrastructure. It’s primary role will be to develop vehicle to grid business models and control systems that can reduce the cost of electricity for electric vehicle owners and to work on 2nd life usage of vehicle batteries (i.e. when the vehicle battery state of charge falls below automotive standard but still has plenty of usable capacity for grid management). (Renault)
  • GM said that it will launch 20 all-electric vehicles by 2023, with the next two due within 18 months. GM implied that this number may include fuel cell powered electric vehicles in addition to BEVs. (GM)
  • ABB showed off their modular high power charging solution. A single unit can charge a car at 150 kW (slightly higher than Tesla superchargers) whilst two units linked can charge two vehicles, at rates of up to 350 kW. (ABB)
  • UK electricity supplier Ovo is offering free electricity to buyers of the new Nissan Leaf that sign up to its new vehicle to grid charging scheme. The company believes that it can save between £350 and £400 in electricity trading fees per vehicle per year and this will pay for the electricity the vehicle uses on the road. (The Guardian)
  • Electric vehicle start-up Faraday Future is reportedly suffering from the resignation of a number of key employees. (The Verge)

September

  • Toyota, Mazda and Denso (a Toyota-affiliated supplier) are creating a joint venture to work on electric vehicle development. The new business, to be called EV C.A. Spirit Corporation, will have around 40 employees and will seek to create a common architecture for electric vehicles. Toyota and Mazda hope that the common platform can be scaleable to a range of vehicle sizes. (Toyota)
  • Dyson confirmed long-standing rumours that the electrical appliance company will make an electric car. The vehicle will be launched in 2020 and there are currently 400 employees working on the project. Dyson said that the budget for the program was £2 billion, split equally between the vehicle and the battery. No details of the program were released but according to reporters it will not be cheap. (BBC)
  • JLR is reportedly considering offers from Samsung SDI, LG Chem and Panasonic to supply batteries. The company is apparently requesting quotes for around 2 million 21700-size cylindrical cells each year. (ET News)
  • Mahindra’s chairman said that the tipping point has been reached on electric vehicle profitability. (Bloomberg)
  • A report by used car sales website iseecars.com, 6 out of the top 10 fastest selling used cars in the US are either fully electric or plug in hybrid. (com)
  • BMW is reportedly planning to release a wireless charging pad that can be placed in a customer’s garage and will have a 3.2kW rating. Previous examples have suffered from being extremely sensitive to vehicle position over the pad so it remains to be seen whether BMW have conquered this problem. (Futurism)
  • VW’s director of development appeared to suggest that the company will unveil an all-electric Phaeton replacement at the Geneva 2018 show. (Motoring)
  • Electric scooter company Gogoro raised $300 million in a Series C round. The company has so far sold over 34,000 electric scooters. (TechCrunch)
  • China is reportedly considering changing ownership rules to allow foreign carmakers to have majority in EV companies that are based in free trade zones. (Bloomberg)
  • A group of ten large companies launched a project called EV100 to encourage carmakers to offer a wider range of electric vehicles. Several of the members, including Ikea and LeasePlan, have set a 2030 deadline to switch to all-electric fleets but the rest don’t yet feel that brave, (Inside Climate News)
  • Mahindra unveiled the e2oPlus compact electric car. The vehicle has a claimed top speed of 85 kmh, range of 140km and a price tag of 7.46 lakh INR (about $11,500). (Economic Times of India)
  • Rimac said that it will create a new high performance electric sports car, to cost around £1 million, with an intended production run of 100 units starting in 2018. (Autocar)
  • Proterra announced that they had created a bus with a range of over 1,100 miles. It wasn’t totally clear how the test advanced the electric cause however since the journey was reportedly at a speed of 15mph -- to the visible disgust of Keanu Reeves (probably). (Green Car)
  • Borgward executives talking at Frankfurt said that the brand is making progress towards launching its first vehicle and stated lofty ambitions: aims for 800k in 2020, 1.6 million in 2025. (Car)
  • Porsche’s Chairman said that the Mission E all-electric sports car would be priced at about the same level as a Panamera, although since it will be offered in different power levels this might only be true for the entry level. (Car)
  • Media were agog at the Aspark Owl unveiling, with the company making claims about a sub 2 second 0-60 time. (Top Gear)
  • NanoFlowCell demonstrated their Quant fuel cell car. Of more interest that the fuel cell technology is perhaps that the entire electric system (including batteries and drivetrain) is a 48V system -- the same level being installed as ICE augmentation now. (NanoFlowTech)
  • Chinese state-owned energy supplier State Grid Corporation of China is reportedly finalising plans for a network of 167,000 charging points throughout the country. (Faconauto)
  • Daimler said it would invest in StoreDot, taking a seat on the board. Daimler hopes to be able to use StoreDot’s fast -charging battery technology in future vans. (Daimler)
  • The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance is targeting 12 purely electric vehicles on sale by 2022. (Nissan)
  • Honda showed a compact EV concept at the Frankfurt show and said that a production version would be on sale in Europe by 2019. Honda said that it will offer an electrified version of all models launched in Europe from now on and that by 2025 it expects two thirds of its European sales to be electrified vehicles. By 2030, it expects to reach the same percentage globally. (Honda)
  • BMW showed an all-electric 4 door grand touring coupe at Frankfurt with a 600km range, promising that it would go into production. (BMW)
  • Future Mobility, the Chinese all-electric start-up led by a group that includes a number of executives from BMW’s electric car program said that the brand name for its cars would be Byton and that sales would begin in China in Q4 2019. (Economic Times of India)
  • Detroit Electric said that it would launch three vehicles within the next three years, putting to use some of the £1.8 billion funding it previously announced following a joint venture agreement with Chinese compay Far East Smarter Energy Group. The company plans to recruit around 200 engineers in the UK to work on the project. (Detroit Electric)
  • British start-up Alcraft Motor Company unveiled a prototype all-electric sports car and launched a crowdfunding campaign to raiase £600,000 in order to make a prototype. The car is intended to have a 200-250 mile range. (Electrek)
  • LG Chem and SK Innovation said that they would begin production in 2018 of EV batteries with an NCM 811 chemistry that improves energy density and reduces cost. (Push EVs)
  • Consulting firm AlixPartners published an electrification index to track progress of electric vehicle take-up by country and manufacturer. (AlixPartners)
  • Uber to said that it will electrify its entire London fleet UberX fleet by 2019, with all Uber vehicles to follow by 2025. The company will offer financial incentives for drivers to buy new vehicles, funded by a £0.35 levy on all London trips. (TechCrunch)

August

  • The Renault-Nissan Alliance is creating a new joint venture with Dongfeng, to be called eGT New Energy Automotive, to produce electric vehicles in China. Ownership will be 25% Nissan, 25% Renault and 50% Dongfeng. The initial product will be an A-sized SUV with a sales target of 120,000 units per year, to be launched in 2019. (Nissan)
  • Truck engine manufacturer Cummins unveiled an all-electric concept truck called the Aeos, intended to display its battery pack design prowess. (Cummins)
  • South Korean researchers say that they have successfully developed a new electrode technology that will allow energy densities to increase six fold from today’s levels. However, since the new electrode is part of a lithium-sulphur battery chemistry design, don’t expect any changes overnight. (Electronic Times)
  • Renault has collaborated with charging company Connected Energy to integrate used electric car batteries into high power chargers. The idea is that the battery can be charged from the local grid and then discharge at a high rate to a waiting electric vehicle. This allows higher charging rates than many local grids can provide (without an expensive infrastructure upgrade). (Inside EVs)
  • Aston Martin said that all its vehicles will be powered by either hybrid or fully electric drivetrain by the mid 2020s. (TechCrunch)
  • Ariel announced that they intend to launch a product named the “Hipercar” with all-electric drive equivalent to 1,180 hp and battery power generated from both plugging in and a micro turbine (similar to the concept of BMW’s i3 range extender, although only in the loosest possible sense). (Elektrek)
  • There was speculation that Faraday Future is looking to drop its Formula E effort in a bid to save money. Although the racing team that runs Faraday’s operation said that the two companies were still in partnership, they also added no-so-cryptically “where there is smoke, there is fire”. (The Verge)
  • French start-up GazelleTech said that they had completed construction of their first micro-factory (a production facility made from containers that can produce around 200 vehicles per year with a staff of five). They intend to launch their first prototype vehicles built this way in November. (Usine Nouvelle)
  • India’s plans for an electric vehicle only mandate by 2030 continued to face scrutiny as a think tank said that plans to have electric power supplied to the over 300 million Indians without access implemented by 2023 at present would not deliver reliable supply on a 24/7 basis. (Times of India)
  • Following on from a recent finding that vehicle-to-grid programs decreased battery life, a new study suggests that by adjusting the charging algorithms (so far something that has only been simulated), battery life could actually be improved. The debate will rage on… (Charged EVs)
  • Ford said that it had signed an MoU with Chinese manufacturer Anhui Zotye to create a range of all-electric vehicles under a new brand. The JV appears to be aimed specifically at the Chinese market and would be Ford’s 3rd joint venture partner in China. Memo: Ford is following the lead of GM and Daimler by planning a China-only EV brand developed with a partner. (Ford)
  • Audi will partner with Chinese firm Hanergy to create panoramic roofs than contain solar cells to extend the range of vehicles. Memo: Tesla have said that they don’t believe the technology is cost effective yet. (Audi)
  • Electric commercial vehicle start-up Arrival (formerly Charge) will supply vehicles to the Royal Mail for testing. The 3.5 to 7.5 tonne trucks have a range of around 100 miles (Wired). The Royal Mail also announced that it has ordered 100 electric vans from Peugeot. (International Business Times).
  • BAIC’s electric vehicle subsidiary BAIC BJEV raised $1.6 billion in Series B funding to expand its line-up and production facilities. Following the funding, BAIC will own 41.19% of the venture. (China Money Network)
  • Hyundai / Kia said that it had accelerated its plan for rollout of all-electric and fuel cell vehicles. Hyundai and Kia will launch 31 “eco-friendly” vehicles by 2020 (eco-friendly in Hyundai-Kia’s nomenclature includes PHEVs, BEVs and fuel cell vehicles) including 8 BEVs and 2 FCEVs. Specific highlights include: a BEV version of its Kona compact SUV with 390km range in 2018, a BEV Genesis luxury saloon in 2021 and a BEV with a 500km range after 2021. (Hyundai)
  • Future Mobility raised an additional $200 million, valuing the company at $750 million. (China Money Network)
  • Ford showed the all-electric commercial vehicle developed with DHL / StreetScooter. Named the StreetScooter Work XL, the vehicle can be fitted with a range of battery sizes (30 - 90 kWh = 80 - 200km range) and has different payload configurations. (Ford)
  • Erstwhile electric truck developer Nikola Motors unveiled the Zero, an all-terrain four-seater BEV with a range of up to 200 miles and a price tag pf $35,000. (Nikola Motors)
  • A pilot vehicle-to-grid scheme in Denmark operated by Nissan and Enel is paying a company €1,300 per vehicle per year to allow its plugged in vehicles to be use for grid management. It isn’t clear if this is a special incentive to participate in the scheme or the energy company genuinely believe V2G systems are profitable at this level. (Bloomberg)
  • German chancellor Angela Merkel said she wasn’t in favour of a proposal to create a mandatory level of electric car sales in Germany (and possibly the whole EU) made by her nearest election rival, Martin Schulz. (Reuters)
  • Bollinger Motors said that their launch vehicle, the B1 (an off-roader with striking similarity to a Land Rover Defender) had attracted 6,000 no-commitment expressions of interest within two weeks of first being shown to the public. Pre-orders with a $1,000 deposit will begin later this year.. (InsideEVs)
  • US start-up Chanje came out of stealth mode, revealing its all-electric medium (c 2T sized) commercial vehicle, created with funding from FDG Electric Vehicles Limited. (Chanje)
  • A stretch of highway in Germany will have 600V overhead electric cables installed by Siemens in order to test electric trucks. Similar sites already operate in Sweden and California. (Golem)
  • Battery supplier GS Yuasa reportedly plans to double battery range by 2020. The company currently has a joint venture with Mitsubishi for automotive batteries but it isn’t clear how this legacy investment will figure following Nissan’s investment. (Inside EVs)
  • Indian company JSW Energy said that it intended to launch its own electric vehicle by 2020 which would be “world class”. It will also produce its own batteries and create charging infrastructure. JSW Energy said it would be committing Rs 4,000 crore (about $600 million) to the project. The company is looking for technology partners, particularly in powertrain. (The Economic Times)
  • Nissan is selling its battery business to GSR Capital. In order to complete the transaction, Nissan will first buy out NEC’s share of the JV and then sell the complete business. The deal includes three manufacturing sites. (Nissan)

July

  • Faraday Future said that it had signed a lease on a site in Hanford, California for a factory -- having earlier abandoned plans for a site near Las Vegas. Faraday said that there were planning to launch by late 2018 and were looking for at least $1 billion in new funding. (Business Insider)
  • Researchers forecast that Tesla batteries will take around 25 years for state of charge to degrade to 80% of new. The data was gathered from Model X and S vehicles on the road today. Note that in a recent Nissan Leaf trial, the time period was around 10 years (Tesla Roadster batteries also have a shorter lifespan). (InsideEVs)
  • German consumer body ADAC recommended that drivers assume the battery capacity of their cars was one third lower than reported figures. This was based in part on long term tests of a Nissan Leaf, which lost 11% of its capacity over a five year test period. The measured degradation is actually better than guaranteed by Nissan in the vehicle warranty. (Golem)
  • A senior Hyundai executive said that the company believes the viability of solid state batteries as a power source for EVs will be proven in the 2020 to 2025 timeframe and that if the technology succeeds, EV market share could be 90% by 2025. (Inside EVs)
  • Toyota is reportedly working on an electric car that will go into production in 2022 and be powered with sold-state batteries. (Reuters)
  • Fisker CEO Henrik Fisker said in an interview that the EMotion vehicle his company plans to launch will have a 145 kWh battery pack that is rated at 800 volts. This is larger than other battery packs announced so far and will be able to benefit from higher charging rates. (Detroit Bureau)
  • Fisker confirmed that they will be using battery cells from LG Chem. CEO Henrik Fisker said that the cells would be “highest energy density” but didn’t provide any details about what this means. (More…)
  • The South Korean government has changed the terms of its incentive program for cars, removing a restriction that prevented owners of vehicles with large batteries receiving grants. (More…)
  • Lucid Motors denied that it had offered to sell itself to Ford and said that its latest funding round was going well. (More…)
  • Faraday Future said that it is abandoning its plan for a $1 billion Las Vegas car factory and will instead choose a new (as yet unnamed) site. The company still appears to be planning an early 2018 release. (More…)
  • Daimler said that it will make an electric version of the Sprinter van at its Düsseldorf factory. (More…)
  • Saw media reports misattribute VW executives with having claimed that 40 factories the size of Tesla’s Gigafactory battery making facility will be required by 2025. The 40 figure was derived by journalists taking VW’s own capacity estimate and multiplying it out by VW’s market share. VW have made a far higher assumption on 2025 industry mix than most other OEMs. (More…)
  • German start-up Sonomotors is promising to launch an electric vehicle by 2019. The design includes integrated solar panels that allow top-up charging for around an additional 30km per day of range. (More…)
  • Nissan said that it expects 20% of European sales to be fully electric by 2020 “where the market conditions are right”. (More…)
  • eMotorWerks announced a scheme that lets private owners of charging points rent time (and electricity) to others via a smartphone app that uses blockchain technology to complete the transaction. (More…)
  • Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) published an updated assessment of electrification growth. Their latest forecast is for cost parity by 2025 and for one third of the vehicle fleet to have a plug (doesn’t preclude PHEVs) by 2040. BNEF set the cost-parity point at $109/kWh for a battery -- higher than many other forecasts (which cluster around $70/kWh). (More…)
  • Charging provider NewMotion announced that it had become a partner on the Gireve This will allow wholesale access to other physical charging points that partner with Gireve, such as the BeLib stations in Paris. (More…)
  • Seats’s president said that the Spanish government should do more to encourage sales of electric vehicles in order to attract production of electric cars, noting that currently only electric commercial vehicles are produced in the country. He also noted that he was expecting a new generation of batteries to arrive in 2025 that would give a significant cost advantage. (More…)
  • UK start-up Charge Automotive said that it had signed a lease for a factory where it will assemble its range of 3.5 to 26 tonne electric trucks. (More…)
  • Lohr Group unveiled its electric minibus called Cristal. The vehicle is intended to feature autonomous technologies and will have a selling price of €90,000, with battery rental on top. (More…)
  • The founder of LeEco is reported to have sold his share of Lucid Motors. (More…)

June

  • A tweet from Henrik Fisker with the Apple HQ in the background led to rumours that the tech giant might be interested in a tie-up. (More…).
  • The website for Fisker reservations said that each $2,000 deposit is fully refundable. There is a cap on the number of reservations which appears to be under review. It is currently two per household, having been three per person when the site launched. (More…)
  • Audi’s chief technical officer said in an interview that the company would be paying about €100 per kWh for batteries when it launches its new all-electric products later this decade. (More…)
  • Chargepoint (backed by Daimler and BMW) announced that it had secured $125 million in its Series G funding round and that it would take on GE’s charging assets in the US. (More…)
  • Faurecia held an investor day where they presented several long range forecasts around battery electric vehicles and fuel cells. Faurecia see the fuel cell stack and hydrogen tank (an approximate alternative to a long range battery) as costing €4,500 in 2030. (More…)
  • Dutch start-up Lightyear have announced their plan to bring a solar-powered electric car to market in 2019. It will have a range of 800km and reservations are now open. Pricing starts at €119,000 with the final design to be unveiled in 2018. (More…)
  • BMW released a report covering the learnings from its ChargeForward V2G charging experiment run with US utility PG&E. The report reveals how BMW split battery capacity between a stationery storage facility and parked vehicles and the extent to which they helped manage grid load (about 80% stationery / 20% vehicle in practice). Part of the learning was the time from experiment inception to final reporting -- 4 years in this case. (More…)
  • Chinese start-up CHJ Automotive said that it plans to release a $7,800 ultra-compact electric car, seeing the vehicle as a logical upgrade from widely used electric scooters (a similar rationale to the Tata Nano). The vehicle is scheduled for launch in March 2018 but few details were shared. (More…)
  • BMW said that current government policy in India does not support take-up of all-electric vehicles as well as it could. (More…)
  • Audi announced that it will make its 2nd electric product -- the e-tron Sportback at its plant in Brussels with production starting in 2019. (More…)
  • Daimler’s Smart brand will reportedly become electric-only from 2020. (More…)
  • German battery cell supplier EAS has reportedly filed for bankruptcy after failing to win new contracts in the automotive industry. (More…)
  • Porsche is reportedly targeting for 50% of its sales to be electrified vehicles by 2023. (More…)
  • Mitsubishi said that electric vehicles will be a major part of their strategic plan and that they had changed their thinking, having previously been of the opinion that EVs were “promising, but the price was too big and the range was limited. (More…)
  • Despite earlier reports that China would relax quota implementation timings for electric vehicles following discussion with the German government, draft rules published later did not include any revisions. (More…)
  • Chinese electric car start-up Xiaopeng Motors has raised $320 million. The investment was led by Ucar Group, itself a (ride-hailing) start-up. (More…)
  • Fisker has reportedly decided that its initial EMotion vehicles will ship with industry-standard lithium ion battery cells rather than the more revolutionary solid state units it has previously talked about. (More…)
  • GM confirmed that it has a nominal selling price for a replacement Bolt battery pack. The cost is set at $15,734.29. GM does not expect battery packs to be sold, citing its warranty policy for Bolt vehicles. (More…)
  • The Indian Oil Company said that it was planning an entry into the energy storage business. Their current proposal is based on using lead-acid batteries with lithium-ion seen as a potential for improved performance. (More…)
  • South Korean newspapers reported that VW was going to sign a $6 billion battery supply deal with LG Chem. LG Chem did not deny that the companies were in discussion but said that no deal had been signed. (More…)
  • Following on from its announcements around a US charging network with stations of up to 150kW, Nissan has signed a contract with DBT to upgrade its European network to 150kW in the coming years. (More…)
  • German battery researchers unveiled a layered battery that they claim could double energy density. A prototype isn’t planned until 2020. (More…)
  • Samsung said that it had completed its battery plant in Hungary. The facility reportedly has an annual capacity of 50,000 packs and will begin production in Q2 2018. Batteries from the facility will supply BMW and Audi plants. (More…)
  • Researchers looking at vehicle to grid systems reached a worrying conclusion: regular usage (1 or 2 times a day) led to a considerable drop over time in the battery capacity and increase in resistance. (More…)
  • Renault-Nissan is reportedly planning a 100 MW battery storage facility in partnership with a business called The Mobility House. The site would contain both new and used batteries. (..)
  • Renault launched a home energy storage product in partnership with Powervault that uses 2nd life Renault EV batteries. The partners claim that the 2nd life batteries reduce the cost of the home energy storage unit by 30%. The program is still at an early stage, with trial units now being installed. (..)
  • US research suggested that electric car sales are being held back by a lack of consumer knowledge about charging infrastructure (the actual level was less of a problem than the fact that many consumers simply assumed it was zero). (..)
  • Fisker said that the US orderbook for their EMotion electric vehicle will open next month. Fisker say that the car has a 161 mph top speed and range of 400 miles. (More…)

May

  • China reportedly agreed, following German lobbying, to soften its rules for electrification levels in new vehicles sold from the beginning of 2018. China’s prime minister said that a solution had been found (to the problem that German OEMs have insufficient products in their portfolio to meet the quotas) without giving further details. (..)
  • Continental unveiled AllCharge, a system that can fit any EV to any charging station and cope with rates of up to 350 kW. (..)
  • Continental has signed up to be supplier for NIOs ES8 SUV program. (..)
  • Continental gave details of a wireless charging system that it has developed. Similar in concept to the system Qualcomm demonstrated a few weeks ago, Continental’s system has a lower charge rate and has been developed for parked cars. (..)
  • Honda announced that it had installed “Europe’s most advanced public electric” vehicle charging station at its German R&D headquarters. The system can charge four vehicles at up to 150kW (memo: Tesla at about 135kW, VW/BMW/Daimler/Ford consortium claims 350kW in future). Honda will add hydrogen filling to the same site at a later date. (..)
  • The creator of the Streetscooter electric delivery van intends to put an electric city car into production in 2018. The vehicle will be called “GO Life” and will be produced in the Aachen factory alongside Streetscooters. (More...)
  • Subaru’s CEO gave an interview where he commented that the company was still not sure whether to have a dedicated EV, or simply make it a powertrain option in existing vehicles. (..)
  • Chinese conglomerate LeEco announced that the CEO would step down and it would have to make layoffs in the US as it attempted to save money. (..)
  • Employees at Faraday Future were told that the problems at LeEco would not affect them (LeEco is a major backer). (More…) Separate reprots said that the company needed $1 billion in new investment to continue (More…)
  • A Bloomberg New Energy Finance report said that electric vehicles would reach cost parity with gasoline engine cars by 2026. (..)
  • Analysis by UBS said that by 2025 14% of global sales and one third of European sales would be BEV or PHEV. (..)
  • The German government has accepted that it will not meet its goal of one million electric vehicles on the road by 2020 according to comments by Chancellor Angel Merkel. (..)
  • Raw material supplier Glencore’s CEO Ivan Glasenberg said that the “electric revolution” was underway and likely to be felt faster than expected. (..)
  • Speculation among trade press in the UK that dealers may be more prepared to stock used electric vehicles, following a rise in auction prices. (..)
  • Israeli firm StoreDot claims that it has developed new battery chemistry that allows 300 miles of range to be charged within 5 minutes. (..)
  • Qualcomm said that it had demonstrated a method for wireless charging at highway speeds via a specially equipped road surface and using two Renault vehicles. The claimed charging rate of 20 kW is the same as a high-powered home charging unit. (..)
  • Continental’s CFO said that electric cars would not “have an economic advantage over combustion engines until 2025”. (..)
  • A study of German industrial companies found that about 50% see it as very likely or quite likely that they will purchase electric vehicles within the next ten years. The current problems reported were primarily the lack of range and secondly the cost. (..)
  • GM said that it was making better than expected progress on reducing battery cost. GM said that against a previous target of $100 per kWh for a battery cell by 2022, GM’s head of product development Mark Reuss said “we’ll be there before then, I know we will”. Reuss also said that GM is trying to reduce the Bolt’s weight in order to have the same range with fewer battery cells. (..)
  • US state Oregon saw new draft legislation introduced to the state senate calling for special incentives for car salespeople to push electric vehicles. A bonus of $250 would be given for each electric car sale but electric-only stores (e.g. Tesla) would be excluded. (..)
  • UK roadside charging company InstaVolt said that it would buy 200 ChargePoint Express Plus stations for a nationwide network in the UK. The stations are capable of charging at rates up to 400 kW (Tesla superchargers are at 120-135kW). (..)
  • BMW Said that its plant in Dingolfing would produce the BMW iNEXT from 2021 and re-iterated that it expects 15% - 25% of its sales to be from electrified vehicles by 2025 (this figure includes hybrid and full BEVs) (..)
  • Chinese company Beijing WKW (part owned by German firm WKW Erbsloh Automotive GmbH said it would invest up to €1.13 billion to build an electric car factory in Lower Saxony, Germany. Analysts were sceptical of the comapany’s ability to fund and operate such a venture. (..)
  • Mahindra and Mahindra has stopped selling its e1o electric car in the UK due to low sales, according to a Reuters report. (..)
  • Nissan launched a pilot project in Italy with Enel Energi and IIT for vehicle to grid technology that allows electric cars that have been parked and plugged in to supply energy to the grid at times of high demand. (..)
  • PSA launched a project called “GridMotion” with the Technical University of Denmark to evaluate real world savings from vehicle to grid technologies, in particular varying the time of day that the vehicle charges and discharges. (..)

April

  • Saw considerable lobbying by other carmakers and interest groups around the use of funds VW has committed to improve electric vehicle charging in California as part of its diesel settlement. (..)
  • Media speculation on the impact of the intended tapering on US EV purchase incentives (currently $7,500 per vehicle) as EVs become widespread (the tapering is on a manufacturer-by-manufacturer basis). One analyst was quoted as saying that incentives were supporting up to 3/8 of the market volume. (..)
  • The chief economist of French oil company Total said that EVs may be almost a third of car sales by the end of the 2020s, causing demand for oil-based fuels to peak in the 2030s. (..)
  • VW said that it will triple its investment in electric vehicles to €9 billion by 2022. (..)
  • Charging network Fastned has launched its first 14 sites in Germany. (..)
  • Austrian energy and fuel station company OMV intends to buy a 40% share of charging supplier Smatrics. (..)
  • German fish distributor Deutsche See will purchase a fleet of 80 Streetscooter In public comments the company was openly critical of VW’s failure to provide them with an all-electric van. (More...)
  • Ford researchers published a paper showing a route to charging prismatic lithium ion cells to 85% in 2 minutes and 100% in 3 minutes (the research did not reflect a full battery lifetime). (..)
  • Apple maps has now begin displaying the location of European charging points (it was already available in the US) using data from Moovility. (..)
  • BMW said that in China its ChargeNow subsidiary would have a total of 2,500 chargers in 15 cities by the end of 2017, a 50% rate of growth. (..)
  • Nissan will build a second “advanced recharging corridor” in the USA with partner EVgo. The route will create charging stations between Boston and Washington D.C. 50 chargers will be installed and the sites will be capable of 150kW chargers but initial installation will be 50kW per charger. (..)
  • Some further technical details of the US charging network that VW will fund emerged, including that the intended rating of the chargers will be 320kW (note that Tesla currently stands at around 135kW and recent Nissan investments are for around 150kW). (..)
  • Deutsche Post owned electric commercial vehicle manufacturer Streetscooter reportedly wants to expand production to 100,000 vehicles per year. It is said to be looking for a site for its third factory. (..)
  • Media profile of char.gy, a UK start-up that uses existing power connections in street lights to provide charging for electric cars. It is currently running pilot schemes in London. (..)
  • Mahindra electric announced a partnership for the Indian market with Zoomcar where car owners can share the vehicle with others when not in use in order to reduce the higher cost versus a ICE vehicle. (..)
  • Wireless charging manufacturer Evatran said that its Plugless-branded chargers have clocked up 1 million hours of charging. (..)
  • The team behind Future Mobility Corporation (FMC), a Chinese-backed electric car start up with some high profile ex-BMW i executives was profiled in Manager Magazin (Source)
  • Battery company A123 Systems announced that it would be moving its headquarters from Livonia to Novi and eliminating around 200 jobs (Source)
  • The CHAdeMO Association (electrical charging standard used by Nissan) announced a revised standard (v1.2) to increase maximum current from 125A to 400A (Source)
  • Hydrogen fuel cell company Plug Power said that Amazon had signed a supply contract that would allow it to take a 23 percent stake if contract performance targets were met. The contract will provide power units for forklifts in Amazon warehouses (Source)
  • UK sales of battery electric vehicles grew 34.2% year over year in March (Source)
  • Ola said that it will pilot using electric vehicles this year, with an eventual target of 1 million electric Ola vehicles in India over the next five years (Source)

March

  • Austrian state energy companies and Hubject announced the creation of a unified charging network comprising 1,300 points throughout the country with the intention of reaching 2,000 by the end of 2017.
  • Latest data showed that Germany had 7,407 public charging points by the end of 2016, a 27% YoY increase. There are now charging points in 1,142 different cities and towns.